


Face the Fear

by EmanTresni



Category: Lobotomy Corporation (Video Game)
Genre: Blood and Violence, Friendship, Gen, Insanity, Minor Character Death, Tags Are Hard, first time posting to ao3
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-01
Updated: 2020-08-01
Packaged: 2021-03-06 04:35:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 9
Words: 33,501
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25647430
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EmanTresni/pseuds/EmanTresni
Summary: A story I wished to write. A man begins a new job at Lobotomy Corporation after being recommended by a friend. After making a new group of friends, they must survive in their new life, dealing with death, abnormalities, and what to eat for dinner. Maybe they'd die, maybe they'd be stuck in a living hell, but hey, at least they have friends. Who knows, maybe they'll reach the highest ranks. But first, they must face the fear.This is my first ever published fan-fic, so I'm sorry if it's bad. I'll add more characters to the tags if they're recurring and are a part of LC, but this story will mainly revolve around 4 characters.
Kudos: 11





	1. Face the Fear 1.1: Lobotomy Corporation

A man in his apartment laid in his stiff bed, his back aching, glancing over and over his bills. Despite being near dawn, Quentin had his curtains drawn with his lights on. Sure, it may have been brighter outside, but not bright enough for him to look over the depressing cityscape for this occasion. He had been let go from his last job and his rent was due. If he didn’t get another job soon, he’d have to live in the Outskirts, which any sane person knew was worse than death. There was still a split opinion what was worse, the monsters lurking in the alleys there, or the people lurking with them.

Quentin got up from his bed, fearing for the safety of his back. He knew he should’ve been worried about the prospect of living in the Outskirts like any other person, even more so considering the few times he had accidently wandered too far from home. He shuddered as he recalled those memories. But Quentin had a plan. He grabbed his mug of coffee by his bed and began drinking it as he pulled out his phone. He checked through his recent text with his best friend.

“hey quentin. it’s been a while. you interested in a new job?”

“Hey Dan. As long as it’s not an MLM, I’ll listen to it. Also, yes, it has been a while. How has Lobotomy Corporation been treating you?”

His friend had gotten a job in the most famous energy company around, and when he did, he went off the grid for a couple of weeks, like most of his friends. He knew why. When your job requires you to regularly get into contact with things that shouldn’t exist, the death rate is naturally high. At least now he knew that at least one of his friends survived. Unless someone else was impersonating him. _Oh well._

“it’s been fine, i guess. the job i’m talking about is actually lobotomy corporation”

“You serious?”

Usually, when people go missing and finally text you back, they don’t usually begin with a job offer to confirm that they’re alright, let alone a job offer for one of the biggest companies in the world. But then again, they usually also don’t use a joke either. Quentin was hopeful though, knowing that this was Daniel’s usual behaviour.

“yeah, i’m serious. i’ve been tasked with finding new recruits after some “complications” at work”

“Rip”

“So you’re saying Lobotomy Corporation wants me?”

“no, I just think you’d fit in well with the facility. if you say yes, you just have to put in a work form, and I’ll put in a good word for you. no guarantees though.”

Quentin didn’t know just how fucked up the facility must be if someone like him would fit in there.

“When do I need to send in my confirmation?”

“by the end of the next week. otherwise you’ll need to wait until next month”

“Aight, thanks. I’ll think about it. Nice talking to you again”

“you too”

Well, he did think about. For nearly two weeks. Quentin had a weird relationship with the corporation. On one hand, he despised it, taking away so many of his friends, never to be heard of again. On the other hand, he always had a wish to work there; it was exciting, active, and it’d provide a roof over his head even if his paycheck was withheld, all things his boring office job didn’t and couldn’t offer.

But there were also the bad.

If the things online and on the media weren’t enough evidence enough, his recent chat with Daniel had confirmed that there was a high chance of dying and/or being driven to insanity. Plus, whilst he would be given a free room to live in, he’d be living on premises. _And something tells me that I won’t be able to walk away from this job that easily._ Still, he wondered if the good outweighed the bad, or if it was better to just live on the Outskirts.

He already knew the obvious answer, his loss of job was simply the final nail on the coffin, on his decision and on him. His coffee was nearly empty. He began typing out his reply.

“Aight, I’m ready to make a decision. But if I die because of this job, I’m haunting you”

“nice. i’ll put in a good word for you, you just need to answer these questions and submit them here”

Daniel has sent a link: [REDACTED]

“I’ll do that. Are any of our other friends still alive?”

“most, some are dead though. rip to them”

Quentin felt that familiar tinge of guilt again as he read the text, though to say he didn’t expect that would be lying. He just had that piece of empty hope.

“anyway, i gotta leave fn, my job calls. before i go though”

Daniel has sent an image:

Quentin smiled, safe in the knowledge that his friend was still alive and well. His mug was empty now. He sat up.

\---

Quentin had made himself a bowl of cereal and sat down at his laptop with the link his friend sent open. It was a regular application form with regular questions. Or at least at first. It said stuff like “How well do you perform in a team setting?” and “Out of these words, how would you describe yourself?” at the beginning, but as it went further and further down, the true nature of Lobotomy began rearing its head.

“Do you have any combat experience?”

“What is your experience with death?”

“If you found out that everything you knew was wrong and reality was a myth, how would you react?”

_Poorly,_ he thought, as he typed out a lie on the form. Eventually, he finished the application and his breakfast. When he submitted the application, he was redirected to a page.

“Thank you for applying for Lobotomy Corporation. A letter shall be sent shortly to your address confirming your acceptance or denial. And remember, face the fear, make the future.”

He got up from his table to clean his bowl. He now had the rest of his day to do whatever he pleased, minus anything that had to do with money.

\---

Turns out, having no money really limited his options. He couldn’t go out for food, so for his dinner he ate minute ramen with his dessert being more minute ramen. Even when he was doing something that required no money, it was still hard to enjoy with his application plaguing his mind. Eventually, he gave into temptation and checked his apartment’s mailboxes. He knew that Lobotomy Corporation wouldn’t send him a reply so soon, he just wanted to give himself peace of mind.

His mailbox only had small number of mails, mainly bills that he couldn’t pay and junk mail that managed to get through. He was kind of glad, since that meant he’d have more time to think about the company and other things. That was until he got to the last envelope. It was sealed with wax seal with a design of a brain being pierced by a big L, the official logo for Lobotomy Corporation. He began hyperventilating, but quickly controlled his breathing again. He set his expectations low, why else would they send a reply so quickly if he didn’t completely bomb. He opened the envelope and pulled the letter out, reading the first line.

“Dear Quentin [REDACTED], after closely reviewing your application, we’ve decided to accept your application to work at Lobotomy Corporation.”

Quentin didn’t bother reading the rest of it, he simply ran back into his room. He could read the rest of it later. He grabbed his phone and texted frantically to his friend.

“Guess who just got accepted”

“pog”

“that probably means you should probably start packing your stuff. read the letter so you know what to pack. see ya there”

As Daniel went offline, Quentin picked up his letter to check over what he had to pack. _About time, it was starting to get boring around here._

\---

Today was the day, and for Quentin, today couldn’t come slower and faster at the same time. He had a quick breakfast and went straight to his mirror. He splashed some water on his face and stared at himself. His eyes were a dark brown, so dark in fact, that it almost blended with his pupils, which was in stark contrast to his blonde, messy hair. He ran his fingers through his hair to style it; messy enough to make himself seem laidback, but not too much that he seemed homeless. Satisfied with his looks, he went to put on his clothes that he prepared the night before: a casual hoodie, some track pants, and some sneakers. He was told not to bring anything too fancy, since his uniform would be provided by the company. He was confused how he got accepted, still unsure what they were looking for, but he wasn’t complaining.

He took one last look at his apartment, making sure he wasn’t leaving anything behind he’d regret. It was a bit depressing, but not because he was leaving behind a room he lived in for so long. In fact, he was glad he was finally getting a new apartment. _Am I really going to throw away my life for this company just for curiosity and desperation?_ was the thought that was depressing him. He picked up his boxes and exited the door of his apartment. _Fuck yeah I am._

\---

Quentin stood outside his apartment complex, waiting for his cab. Since he didn’t have a car, an employee would pick him up. So, he waited.

And waited

And waited

Quentin had come outside 30 minutes too early. This wasn’t the first time he’d done something like this. He sat down as he waited for the car. He laid down on the bench and began watching videos.

“Hey, you’re Quentin, right?”

Quentin moved his phone out of his way and saw a man looking over him. He had short brown hair styled upwards and wearing aviator sunglasses. He sat up to face the man.

“And you are?”

“Jake. Jake [REDACTED].”

Quentin noticed the red sports car behind Jake. Jake looked proud of himself.

“Yep, that’s mine! Comfiest seats around, plus the trunk is bigger than it looks, so your stuff will fit in easily,” Exclaimed Jake. Quentin was nervous. Sure, he fit the description the letter gave to down to the car, but kidnappings were all too common in the city. Still, it wasn’t like he had much of a choice.

“Don’t worry, I’ll help you put the boxes in the trunk. It’s faster that way,” Jake offered, already picking up a box. Quentin sat in the front passenger seat after his luggage was packed away. He didn’t have too much luggage since he was told he didn’t need to much.

He only had his clothes, mementos, personal electronics, and a pillow. He was told that his bed and other living needs would be provided by the company, but if he was going to live there, he would at least make sure his pillow was bearable. As the car began to drive off, he looked at his previous place of residency and wondered if anyone would miss him there. _Not my landlord, that’s for sure._

\---

The drive was calm. The windows blocked most of the noise outside, so Quentin got to see the city without the multiple slurs that would be thrown at him normally. He did notice one thing though.

“This isn’t the way to the facility, right?”

“Yeah. We’re not trying to throw you off from the direction of facility X-394, I just gotta pick up some more employees.”

“X-394?”

“The biggest branch in Lobotomy Corporation. I heard the final department was recently opened up.” The ride went silent once more.

“So, is it true that the company uses monsters to harvest energy?” Quentin asked.

“Officially, I’m not at liberty to say, but if we _hypothetically_ did use monsters to _hypothetically_ harvest energy, we would call them abnormalities. _Hypothetically._ ” Quentin felt like he was learning so much already.

“This is a bit of a weird company car.”

“It’s not. It’s my pride and joy. I was allowed to use this since it doesn’t draw too much attention.”

“Is the death rate really that high?” as he asked the question, he saw Jake shift around his seat uncomfortably as a frown entered his face.

“Yeah, but I wouldn’t worry too much about it. If you’re competent and know what you’re doing, you’ll be fine. Heck, sometimes I feel like I should’ve died in situations, but I still wake up the next day. So, don’t worry, you’ll be fine, I think.” That didn’t comfort Quentin too much

“Do you have any tips on surviving my first day?”

“Yeah, get some rest, it’s going to be a long day. I’ll wake you up when we get there,” Jake suggested. Quentin decided that that was the most helpful tip he was going to get, so he simply put his head against the door window and closed his eyes.

\---

“Hey, wake up already!” Quentin felt someone tap his shoulder. Opening his eyes, he saw a building with the Lobotomy Corporation logo on it and nearly a dozen other people standing around it.

“We’re here. That door will close every time someone enters, so enter the code they gave you in the letter,” Jake explained.

“No need to explain it, we’ve got it,” Quentin almost jumped when he heard the unfamiliar voice. He turned around and saw another person. A woman with long dyed hair sat there. The male new employee was barely lucid, so he couldn’t really register who the girl was or even other features of her.

“When did you get here?” Quentin asked, slightly slurring his words.

“I spontaneously appeared here, obviously,” She replied sarcastically. _Not really sure what I was expecting._

“Oy, need I remind you that you two have a job to get to. Get your shit out of my car and walk,” Jake said, opening the doors. The two employees complied. Wordlessly, they got their luggage out of the trunk and began walking towards the building. It was much smaller than Quentin was expecting, considering this was apparently the biggest branch of Lobotomy Corporation. The employees that were previously standing around the building were now mostly gone, with the rest waiting their turn to put in their code. He waited, input his code into the keypad, and walked in. Inside was a room. It had metal walls and a door that someone was already trying to open, to no avail.

The employees were crowding around a certain area, which Quentin realised was a platform. _That’d explain the size of this building._ He checked the room again and found a timer counting down, nearing 5 minutes. He joined the rest of the employees and, after 2 minutes of no one new walking in, placed his boxes down and began listening to music. He nearly fell over when the platform began moving downwards. It was moving, and fast. His song finished, and then another, yet the elevator showed no sign of slowing down. Quentin began scanning the rest of the employees on the elevator with him. Whilst some had a normal appearance like Quentin, the rest looked a lot more interesting. Some had unusually coloured hair, grizzled looks, scars, and more. Quentin realised just how out of place he was. He began to doubt himself, but just as he did, his favourite song came on, so doubt could come later.

As the song ended, he checked the time. It’d been nearly 5 minutes and the elevator still weren’t slowing down. _Thank fucking god I don’t have to do this every day._


	2. Face the Fear 1.2: First Day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The facility that's literally the main point of the game is finally shown.

It had been more than 10 minutes when the elevator finally stopped. As it did, Quentin planted his feet and grabbed his luggage, making sure nothing fell. Judging by the sound of boxes and bodies hitting the floor, others weren’t as lucky. A large metal door awaited them at the bottom. Quentin and the others began picking what they had brought with them in anticipation. The door hissed and slid open, revealing a break room of sorts. Even though it was a lot more high-tech than a regular office break room, he could still recognise the staples of one. The sounds of coffee machines being well used, the doughnuts, the chatter of employees at tables talking about anything except their wages, it was all there.

The employees, however, looked nothing like your average working person. Their suits were only formal in the fact that they had ties, their features, whilst definitely human, had parts that were treading a fine line between inhuman to forsaken by god. He swore he even saw one person with too many eyes and (CENSORED) on their face. He almost threw up when he saw that. The employees began filing out of the elevator.

He checked the room, looking for someone. Quentin found his best friend entering the break room. Upon the sight of his friend, Daniel began waving to him. Before Quentin could get to his friend to talk, he heard metal clanging behind him, getting closer and closer. He spun around (or at least turned around as fast as he could whilst balancing boxes) to face whatever was coming towards him. A brown robot with a rectangular chassis stood there. In its hands were a notepad and pencil. On its head, the word “Malkuth” glowed. Quentin had assumed that that was its name.

“Good morning. My name is Malkuth, head of the Control Team,” she (he assumed it was a she) said in an artificial, yet shockingly human, voice. “Since you are new employees, you must pair up with a senior employee and ask them any questions you may have. Pick up your uniforms and tablets at the designated areas and find an employee that has the same assigned department as you. I understand that you may wish to prepare your rooms, but the work period is beginning soon. You can place your luggage over there, afterwards, we will place them within your rooms. If you haven’t labelled your property, there’s a sharpie over there,” and with no further talk, she turned around and walked away, leaving the employees standing there.

He had placed his luggage and backpack with the other luggage and began taking his equipment. His uniform was a simple business suit, nothing like the stuff he saw the other employees wearing. He was also given a riot baton, for protection. It felt like it could deal serious damage if he swung it at something's head, so he felt confident in his safety. His tablet was quite fancy; it was sleek, a chic black with the logo at the back, and lightweight. He turned his tablet on and read the boot-up screen.

“Welcome [NAME NOT ASSIGNED].”

He looked through the apps, but was disappointed to find only a manual, an encyclopaedia, and a map of the facility. Quentin was in awe at the absolute size of the facility. He knew it was big, but he wondered if he was able to walk from the Command department all the way to the Architecture department without resting. He also noticed a couple of rooms that were currently offline, which were labelled as containment units. He wasn’t the brightest around, but he wasn’t so dumb as to not know what those were for. He exited the map and checked for any other information he could find.

He found in the corner of his screen his assigned department, the Control team, Malkuth’s department. Quentin also saw the department on the map, near the top of the facility, so he assumed that was the safest department there. He was thankful for that, not having to start off in the deep end. He felt a slap on his back that almost made him stumble. Turning around, he faced his friend, Daniel, with a big grin on his face. He studied his friend.

His hair was black and, while not exactly neat, had a lot more care in the style rather than Quentin’s bird nest of hair. His eyes a sky blue, though with a certain look that told Quentin that he’d seen some shit. He remembered Daniel as somewhat chubby, but now he had a lot more muscle to his frame. Quentin felt a bit jealous of him for keeping in better shape than him. He wasn’t fat, he was actually a bit skinny, but he definitely needed to work out more.

“Looks like you got Control team, nice! I’ve also been assigned there for the day. Looks like you’re stuck with me for the day,” Daniel exclaimed, with an air of amusement.

“Cool,” Quentin replied, unsure whether to be glad or worried.

\---

Quentin took longer than he would’ve liked to when he changed, and by the time he was finished, most of the employees were gone. Quentin wandered the halls on his way to the Control department, swinging his baton to practice for when he’d actually use it. By the time he strolled into the main department, he was confident in his ability to repel any threats that day. Just like the hallways, there was barely anybody in the main room. The room in question was quite yellow, and the only people in there were people wearing uniforms that didn’t look like the regular uniform, and his best friend and senior employee Daniel.

Unlike Quentin’s black three-piece suit, Daniel wore a dark brown suit with a furred cobalt blue jacket, adorned with scars on several parts. His pants were the same colour as his jacket and were also covered in scars, and instead of the normal works shoes, he wore boots covered in fur. He was also wearing some green noise-cancelling headphones, a metal heart covered in bits of flesh on his chest that beat every few seconds and was blowing bubbles repeatedly like bubble gum. Upon seeing Quentin, Daniel got up from the bench he was sitting on and began to speak to his friend.

“Bro, you’re seriously late for your first day? Fucking cringe.”

“O-oh, sorry about that.”

“Don’t worry about it, we just have to hurry up. You see those cameras?” Daniel pointed to one of the surveillance cameras in the room. “Hold a thumb up towards the camera and you’ll begin your day.” Quentin looked over to the camera. It was an unusual way to begin work, but he knew he was going to see stranger. The moment the new employee flashed a thumbs up to the camera, his tablet dinged with a notification. He looked at his tablet and read out the notification out loud, for his senior to hear.

“Perform attachment work on One Sin and Hundreds of Good Deeds.”

Accompanied by the order was an image that Quentin assumed had something to do with One Sin and Hundreds of Good Deeds. It was extremely bright, making it difficult to make out anything about the image. All he could see was a skull mounted on something he couldn’t identify.

“Of course they start you off with One Sin. It’s the easiest abnormality in the facility. C’mon, I’ll explain somethings on the way,” Daniel motioned to follow him as he began walking off into a hallway. Quentin followed close behind. As they walked, Daniel went over the basics.

“So there’s four stats every employee has,” Daniel explained.

“Stats?”

“Check your tablet.” Quentin looked back to his tablet. This time, it actually showed his name when it started up. _Weird_ was the most he thought about it. It seemed that the tablet now showed more information than before, including his stats. He looked at what his stats were and saw that he was level 1 for fortitude, and prudence, but level 2 for temperance and justice. He had no idea what most of the words meant.

“Fortitude means your toughness, prudence is your smarts, temperance is self-control, and guess what justice means,” Daniel explained after noticing the look on Quentin’s face. The newbie was less concerned about that and was focused more on his title.

“Quentin, Sincere Newbie.”

“We’re here,” Daniel had stopped him in his tracks. They stood at a large, imposing, metal door with a circular window on it. Next to it, was a keypad and a plaque with the name of the abnormality.

“Just put in your identification number you got on your tablet to enter the containment unit,” Daniel explained, which Quentin followed. As the door opened, before he could walk in, he realised something.

“Wait! How do I perform ‘attachment’?”

“Just try to make a connection with the abnormality. Check your tablet if you get stuck but remember that most abnormalities won’t like it when you do that during work. Good luck!” Daniel explained right before shoving Quentin into the room. The door closed behind him before he could get out. He slammed the door several times to get Daniel’s attention. After no response, Quentin swore under his breath.

He turned around to face whatever abnormality he was stuck with and went wide-eyed upon his eyes landing on it. It wasn’t scary per se, but it sure was surreal. A giant skull wearing a crown of thorns mounted on a cross floated gently in front of Quentin. He suddenly felt nervous and wondered just how effective his equipment would be against other abnormalities. He wasn’t sure if he would want to see what lurked in the lower levels if he was already afraid of the supposedly easiest abnormality. _Calm yourself, you have a job to do._ He gulped and looked back down on his tablet, reading the process for attachment. As he read, he felt a headache form, but ignored it.

Feeling his confidence weakly return, he turned off his tablet and faced One Sin again. He took a deep breath and began attempting to communicate with the abnormality.

“C-can you talk?” the skull only menacingly chattered its teeth in response. Quentin wasn’t entirely sure what he was expecting when something has no lips nor tongue. He checked the stress level of One Sin on his tablet and saw no change. It was at this point that Quentin registered the low singing of a hymn in the air. He walked towards the abnormality and, as he suspected, the hymn got louder, but not too loud. He listed the music as a non-hostile aspect of the abnormality, which he was sure had already been recorded before, but he still did it. He took another step towards One Sin and placed a jittery hand on the skull, which was cold to the touch.

He pulled his hand away, making sure not to leave it there for too long in fear that One Sin may attack. Once again, the stress level remained the same and the abnormality didn’t react to the advances. The abnormality began chattering its teeth again, and Quentin wondered if that was its way of communication, so he listened for any patterns he could decipher if it was Morse code. Alas, he couldn’t make out any pattern and abandoned his theory. Quentin stepped back, as his heart rate began slowing again. His headache had gotten worse. He was calm again after he was certain that the abnormality wasn’t going to attack him. He felt neither happiness nor fear towards the abnormality, just indifference, and he knew One Sin felt the same way about him.

Quentin was about to finish his work, gaining so much yet so little knowledge of the abnormality and the corporation, when he stopped. He had one more thing he had to do. He didn’t know why he knew he had to do it, but somewhere in the back of his mind, he knew this was the right thing to do. He clasped two hands together and held them to his head, his eyes closed not too tightly, as he began to confess.

His mouth never opened, but his thoughts reached One Sin and Hundreds of Good Deeds loud and clear. He remembered that night

A quiet, beautiful, night. It was midnight, a dangerous time to be outside, but a beautiful time usually. And he had stumbled upon a crime scene in the making. He didn’t remember specifics, he’d been repressing the memory for so long, but he remembered looking down an alley that night and seeing a group of people mutilating a body. They didn’t notice him, and he didn’t remember how many people there were, but what he did remember was that the face of the victim was way too familiar. He didn’t get any sleep that night, and for a lot of nights later.

As he separated his hands and opened his eyes, One Sin began chattering its teeth again, but this time, it wasn’t menacing. Objectively, it was the same sound, but something inside Quentin knew better. If he had checked his tablet at the time, he would’ve seen that One Sin’s stress level was decreasing, but he didn’t need to. Quentin could feel his headache disappearing and he felt rejuvenated. _I guess it was the right thing to do._

Out of the blue, he felt a pain on his head. Not in, but on. At first, he wondered if he was having another headache, when the pain suddenly stopped. He felt his head to see if anything changed and felt what felt like multiple hard blunt spikes. He looked at his switched off tablet and saw that he was now wearing a thorn crown, almost identical to the one worn by the skull in front, although much blunter. Initially worried that it was dangerous, he felt his mind become clearer. Not wanting to anger the abnormality, he left the crown on his head.

Quentin turned away from the skull and imputed his identification number to signify that he was done with his work. As the door opened, he heard a gun click.

“Sorry, but I’ve got orders.”

Before he could duck out of the way, the gun fired, the bullet driving straight through his head. 

\---

Quentin’s body hit the ground, but not in a limp way. He picked himself up off the ground, rubbing his head. The bullet definitely had gone through his head, but there was no hole, only a headache. His “assailant” began laughing loudly. He turned his head to them. It was a woman wearing a completely black suit with a white outline. In her hands were two guns, one black and one white, the white one had smoke coming out of it, so he assumed that that was the one she shot him with. Quentin looked at the face laughing at him. Her hair was a simple brown and was cut short. Her hair was also adorned with a glowing, fire red stick crown. It was simple yet elegant.

Quentin couldn’t really comment on the eyes, since they were shut tight from laughing. Her mouth was completely covered by straps, yet she was able to speak and laugh as if nothing was there. He also noticed that one of her hands were covered in bloody bandages. Quentin decided he wouldn’t pry into that. He picked himself off the floor and, after regaining his composure, began questioning the person.

“What the fuck was that?” He asked.

“Sorry, I just love doing that to new employees,” She answered, still chuckling.

“No, I mean, you did shoot me, right?”

“Yeah, with a white weapon, so don’t worry.”

“White?”

The woman looked surprised. “Wow, you’re really new, aren’t you?”

“I did just join today.”

“It’s in your manual. Abnormalities, as well as the weapons we have, can deal more types of damage besides physical. We’ve categorised the attacks into colours. Red means physical, white means mental, black means both physical and mental, and pale attack damage your very soul, though you shouldn’t worry about that for now.”

“So, your weapon deals mental damage?”

“And black as well, depending on the gun I fire. If you get hit with mental damage enough, you will panic, though you can regain your sanity if we hit you with mental attacks if you’re panicking.” Quentin clutched his head. The headache was severe, and he wanted to rest a bit. He then had a sudden realisation.

“Wait, so the headache I felt from One Sin was-“

“It’s not hostile, it just does that.”

Quentin felt relieved that it wasn’t hostile, but knew that there would be more things down the line that wouldn’t be as friendly.

“I see you got its gift as well,” the woman continued.

“What’s a-“

“The thorn crown. Almost every abnormality may give you an Ego gift that can give you different benefits.” As she said that, she pointed to the straps around her mouth. “There are also Ego weapons and armours, extracted from the abnormalities psyche. They give you different defences and attacks, like the ones I have right now.” Quentin felt satisfied with the questioning and the nature of his crown, but he had one last question.

“What happened to Daniel?” he asked, fearing the worst.

“Oh, don’t worry about that idiot. He was ordered to suppress a breaching abnormality. He’ll be fine, but for now, I’ll have to guide you. The name’s Khanna,” She explained, holding out her bandaged hand for the new employee to shake.

“Quentin,” he said, shaking Khanna’s hand.

“I know.”

“O-oh.”

\---

Quentin lounged around the main room. He hadn’t gotten too many assignments from the day, only working on about 2 other abnormalities, and all he had to do was feed them and clean their room. He’d also learned a bit about the abnormalities in general, mainly the fact that they were classified based on their danger. Currently, Quentin had only worked on ZAYINs and TETHs, the safest classifications. He read through his manual on his works. He’d done almost every general work for the abnormalities, except for repression. He read through what repression would involve in case he’d have to perform it. Instead of handling desires of the abnormality like other works, repression was the act of suppressing those desires. He’d have to make definite judgements and may even have to perform violence on them in order to repress those desires. _Is attacking them really a good idea?_

Quentin looked around the main room. Khanna left after Quentin had finished cleaning the room of a small bird, claiming that he was ready to work on his own. Since she was gone, and Daniel was still suppressing abnormalities, there was barely anybody in the main room. Besides Quentin, there was a clerk, as he had come to know them, restocking a vending machine. Clerks were the office workers of Lobotomy Corporation and were generally looked down upon employees. They were thought to only exist simply to die. He didn’t know how he felt about that theory. Almost as if the manager had heard Quentin’s thoughts, the clerk, after they finished restocking the vending machine, was suddenly engulfed by black void, leaving no trace that there ever was an employee. Shocked, Quentin looked around the room to find the source of the void, and found a turret receding back into the roof.

Before Quentin could think about the situation any further, an alarm went off. When he first heard that earlier, he was worried, like anybody would be, but he later learnt that simply meant a meltdown was occurring, something that could be resolved just by doing his job. When the alarm died down after about a second, his tablet went off. He checked his tablet for his new work.

“Perform repression work on Opened Can of Wellcheers.”

Accompanied by the order was an image that seemed to be an advertisement for a soda brand called Wellcheers, which Quentin was familiar and enjoyed with. He didn’t want to waste any time, knowing that if this was a meltdown, time was crucial, and began to walk to the containment unit.

\---

Quentin imputed his information on the keypad, thankful that the plaque identified the abnormality as a ZAYIN, and stepped into the unit. As he did, two prawn like humanoid creatures dressed in blue overalls and yellow rain boots ran up to him, waving a purple can in his face.

“Would you like to try some Wellcheers?” one of the prawns asked, surprising Quentin with their ability to commune.

“It’s grape flavoured!” The other prawn replied. Quentin pushed them away after noticing the fact that the can was already opened.

“No thanks, I’m here to do my job.” The prawn looked sad.

“Oh well, if you do want one, the vending machine is over there,” one prawn said, pointing its arm towards the corner. In that corner was an unusual vending machine. It seemed to only dispense Wellcheers, though with only one button, so Quentin didn’t know how to get different flavours, it had decals all over it effectively begging whoever saw it to drink it, with graffiti claiming it was free and praising the taste of the soda.

“Do you always do that when an employee comes in?” The employee asked the prawns.

“Of course, Everybody should try some Wellcheers. Goes great with shrimp!” One of the prawns answered happily.

“It’s a bit aggressive, so employees will probably not try it if you push too hard.” One of the prawns looked contemplative as he said that.

“I… I guess you’re right. Sorry, we just get a bit excited whenever someone comes in,” The prawn with the can said.

“But you should still try it. C’mon, have a sip!” The other prawn exclaimed, grabbing the can from their partner and holding it to Quentin’s face. He grabbed the can from the prawn, causing a pleased look on the prawn’s face, walked over to the drain in the unit, and poured the liquid down the drain.

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING!”

Quentin expected this reaction. He was meant to destroy this abnormality's desires and tendencies. He turned around. The prawn was about to attack the employee, but the other prawn stopped him by placing his hand(?) on their shoulder. Quentin sighed in relief. He decided to ask them a question.

“So are you guys really praw-“ Quentin didn’t finish his sentence after the prawn that restrained the other one punched him in the gut. _They’re stronger than they look_ Quentin noted, clutching his stomach.

“We are shrimp, please don’t get us confused with prawns,” one of the pra- _shrimp_ explained. Quentin staggered back up.

“All right, all right, you’re shrimp.”

“It doesn’t matter what we are, that doesn’t change the fact that shrimps are delicious no matter how you cook ‘em,” the shrimp continued. Quentin didn’t understand their obsession with eating shrimp, especially if they were really shrimp.

“That looks painful. You should try out the cherry flavour. It heals wounds and goes great with s- “

“When are you going to understand that I’m not going to accept any drinks from you guys.”

This time it was the other shrimp who punched him, but instead of crumpling over, he grabbed his baton quickly and swung it hard at the shrimp’s head. It was a good hit, not enough to knock the shrimp out, but enough for the shrimp to stumble backwards, dazed. The second shrimp began backing away from the annoyed employee. Quentin was glad to have worked on other abnormalities before this, since that meant he could actually take the punches. The small bird, whilst not dangerous, did some damage with its pecks and the fairies packed some serious bite, Quentin was lucky that the same fairies were more than happy to heal his wounds.

“Woah, ok man, we’ll stop bothering you, just do what you want,” the unhit shrimp said with a tinge of nervousness in its voice.

“Thanks, it gets annoying quick,” Quentin responded. At least the shrimps were no longer pestering him with possibly laced drinks, so this was a success on his end. Quentin walked over to the vending machine in the room. He was informed that every employee who worked on Opened Can of Wellcheers should take at least one drink from the machine. Quentin pushed a button, and, after some worrying rumbling, a can fell from the compartment. He picked it up and began inspecting it. It was a grape flavour, like the ones the shrimp were offering him, but this time it wasn’t opened, so Quentin didn’t have to worry about waking up with a missing organ. He cracked open the cold on and began chugging it down.

“Holy shit this is really good,” Quentin told the shrimps.

“T-thanks,” one of the shrimps responded, still recovering from the retaliation. Quentin wasn’t lying, it was good. As he drank, he felt the places the shrimps punched begin to heal and his thoughts became clearer. He let out a sigh of satisfaction as he finished the drink. He began to leave the containment unit.

“No hard feelings?” he asked the shrimps behind him.

“It’s fine, we’ve suffered worse.”

\---

As he walked back towards the main room, he spotted something at the end of the hallway. It was an employee and a small bird, _Punishment Bird if I recall correctly,_ harassing him. It was doing ineffective pecks at the employee. Quentin recognised the employee. It was one of the new employees that came with him, the one with the grizzled face and look in his eyes that said, “fight me”.

“Enjoy your punishment, sinner!” the bird said. Quentin felt like he should’ve been surprised, especially since it didn’t even chirp when he was cleaning its room, but at this point, he had already given up expecting anything else.

“Fook yer punishment ya little shit!” the employee responded, grabbing his baton. Quentin wanted to rush in and stop the employee from flattening the bird, but he acted against it, since he had no idea what may happen if he did that. The employee swung at the bird, launching it into the wall. “How’s that for punishment, ey?”

The bird didn’t even seem fazed. It just began fluttering again, but he noticed a furious look on the bird’s face, if that was even possible.

“Fine, if you want a bigger punishment…” the bird said. Its stomach began rumbling, around the red blot on it that Quentin assumed was just its feathers. The employee went for another hit on the bird. It was at this point when he realised that the clerks were purposely looking away from the battle. As he wondered about that, the flesh on the bird's stomach suddenly ripped open and reveal it’s second mouth. Its barbed tentacles sprung out from the mouth.

And straight towards the sinner.


	3. Face the Fear 1.3: Do you read me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Quentin goes insane, makes a new friend, then almost goes insane again.

When Quentin came to, he was in a department that he hadn’t been in. He was surrounded by employees with their weapons drawn out against him, one of which were Khanna, both of her guns smoking. The newbie looked at them with confusion. After a few tense seconds, one of the employees spoke.

“He’s sane again, let’s move out.” With no further talk, most of the employees left to do whatever they had to do. Only leaving Quentin and Khanna. Before he could ask Khanna what the hell happened, another voice came from the end of the hallway.

“HEY, QUENTIN!” Daniel yelled, running towards them. When he reached them, Quentin opened his mouth to greet his friend, only to stop after he registered that his throat hurt like all hell. In fact, almost everywhere hurt. He began searching himself and found multiple bullet wounds in his torso, not bleeding, but still stinging. “What happened to Quentin?” Daniel asked Khanna.

“He went insane and began wandering. Not sure what caused it,” Khanna replied, a look of concern washing over both of their faces. _Insane?_ Daniel turned to his best friend, who was looking around the room trying to register what department it was. _Very green._

“Hey, Quentin, what happened? What do you last remember?”

Quentin began thinking, trying to recall what happened before he blacked out. He remembered the taste of grape soda, the employee and Punishing Bird, and a lot of red and screaming. He finally registered what had truly happened.

“O-oh god,” he muttered quietly since his throat was practically non-existent.

“The death of newbie [REDACTED] due to Punishing Bird was confirmed around the same time as Quentin going insane, so I’m assuming that these two events are related?” Khanna asked. He nodded.

“I-I became insane?”

“Don’t worry, it’s nothing too severe. You just started wandering for a bit,” Daniel explained.

“Dan, I went _insane._ ”

“More panicking actually, plus, you came back to reason, so I see this as an absolute win.”

“What do you even mean wandering?”

“Oh, you basically started running around everywhere screaming at the top of your lungs. Not very dangerous, but we had to suppress you to make sure no one else went crazy from the screaming.”

“So how long was I panicking?”

“It’s almost the end of the workday. And you were running around for most of that,” Khanna answered

_That long huh? That explains my throat._ Quentin almost fell over as he then felt the pain in his legs. _And that_.

“As I said, don’t worry,” Daniel continued. “Wander is the easiest panic state to deal with. Be glad you didn’t resort to murder, suicide, or even began to shutdown containment units.” Quentin didn’t feel very thankful, but he did admit, a sore throat would probably be better than killing himself.

“As long as you’re ok, then just relax back at your department for a bit, but don’t fall asleep. We’ve still got a job to do,” Khanna suggested, flashing a grin. Or at least, Quentin assumed it was a grin since he still couldn’t see her mouth due to the straps. It was amazing just how quick she was able to change emotions that quickly, though he knew it was an acquired skill. As if on command, Quentin got a request on his tablet ordering him to go back to his main room. He wasn’t complaining though, he really needed the rest. He just hoped that he wouldn’t collapse on his way.

\---

Quentin didn’t feel like himself for the trip back. It felt like he had seen something he was never meant to see and would never be the same. _This must be a process for employees,_ he reasoned to himself. After taking a longer than he should’ve, taking breaks for his legs to recover, he finally made it back to the Control department. He found the vending machine, _thank god for that one clerk,_ ordered a drink, and began chugging it down to help his throat. He sat down at the nearest table and laid his head on his arms, almost dozing off.

He heard shuffling in front of him. Lifting his head to face whatever made that noise, he saw a person with glowing orbs around them sit down. As he looked, he realised that he recognised the employee. It was the same one from his ride to the corporation, the woman who joined whilst he was asleep. He recognised her from the long, unnaturally coloured hair, with him now recognising the colour as a dark reddish-purple. She was also drinking a soda, and when Quentin looked closely, he realised the orbs were in fact fairies from the Fairy Festival, which the woman was trying to swat off. Her uniform was similar to his, that being a suit, and on her arm was a band with a big M, the same as Quentin’s, identifying them a part of the Control Department. He wondered why they never ran into each other during work, but he shrugged it off as the department being big enough for them not to bump into each other.

“I’m fine already, you guys can get off me,” the woman said in an annoyed tone to the fairies.

“Are you sure? We would hate for you to get hurt,” the fairies replied

“Yes, I’m certain. Go back to your cells.” Without a word, the fairies began fluttering off. After sighing, the woman turned to the other new employee, who suddenly felt embarrassed for staring.

“You alright? Do I have something in my face?” she asked. Quentin wasn’t sure if she was being serious or not. The only thing unusual about her face was the safety match placed in her mouth. Quentin stumbled for an answer.

“Oh, uh, no. Sorry for that,” He replied. Neither of them spoke for a couple of awkward seconds, Quentin looking like he was about to die from the tension, whilst the woman who sat across from him didn’t change expression from her stoic face. The only sound was the occasional sipping from the soda cans.

“Those were the Fairy Festival, right?” Quentin asked, not wanting the silence to last for a second longer. The woman raised her eyebrow, not exactly expecting that question.

“You worked on them too?” She asked.

“Yeah. They seem nice.”

“That’s what worried me. If something seems entirely nice, chances are it has a high chance of killing you.”

“Really? But don’t they heal you? I’m not entirely sure what you’d have to do to die from them.”

“It could be like how people keep their meat fresh for later meals?” Quentin looked down contemplatively. _She does have a point._

“My theory is that they eat you if you get harmed, worried for their meat,” The woman continued, expression unchanging but tone sounding more excited to discuss abnormalities. Quentin gulped.

“Of fucking course the fairies are carnivorous. Why wouldn’t they be?” he rhetorically asked, sounding a bit more done with the facility’s bullshit. The woman began laughing.

“That’s just my theory, so don’t take it for fact. Just be cautious of the abnormalities.” Quentin felt guilty. He knew that this person was new to the corporation, just like him, yet she was already much wiser than him, and what’s worse is that he’d already gone insane on his first day.

“Oh, and by the way, yes, we were on the same car here,” She continued, not wanting to wait for the question to be eventually asked.

“That’s what I thought. I’m Quentin.” The woman looked furrowed her brow, her amber eyes threatening to burn a hole into Quentin’s.

“So, you were the one that was screaming like the world was ending earlier,” She stated.

_Shit._

“Yeah, that was me,” Quentin said, disappointed that he made a bad first impression. The woman’s gaze relaxed.

“I’m surprised you’re able to talk at all. Don’t feel too bad about panicking, I’m pretty sure most new employees have at some point.” Quentin let out a sigh of relief as she said that, thankful that he wasn’t alone in his experiences. He did take a second to understand the connotations of what she said though.

“Wait, so have you?” he asked. The woman sighed.

“Yeah, attempted to snap my own neck when I saw a higher up panicking. Luckily, I regained my sanity pretty fast,” She explained. Quentin almost didn’t believe her, after all, she looked quite composed and rational.

“We got off pretty good though. I know of at least 4 other new employees who died today. One managed to do what I couldn’t, another was shot to death after killing another employee in a panic, and the last one I’m assuming you know about, considering how close the announcement for his death was to the announcement of your panic,” she continued.

“If you’re referring to the Punishing Bird incident, then yeah, I’m all too familiar,” Quentin replied, chuckling a bit.

“Who would’ve thought such a small bird could hide such a terrible secret.” Quentin didn’t need to be reminded of the bird’s grizzly secret.

“You worked on Punishing Bird as well?” Quentin asked.

“While you were running around for, like, half of the day, we were working. So yes, I did work on Punishing Bird,” She answered, a tinge of irritation in her voice from the dumb question.

“A shame though. I worked on so many abnormalities, and I still have the same number of gifts as you,” she continued, disappointedly.

“The match, right? Where did you get that from?”

“Scorched Girl. It’s some little girl who’s been completely burnt over. Gave me one of her matches. Claimed that they show a better future. What about you?” Quentin took off the crown of thorns of his and placed on the table gently.

“One Sin and Hundreds of Good Deeds,” he stated.

“That’s a mouthful,” Quentin heard the woman mutter quietly.

“It’s a skull mounted on a cross.” Quentin continued. “It doesn’t talk, but is mostly safe, save for the headaches it may give you. Word of advice though, be sure to make a confession for the abnormality. It loves feeding off sins.”

“I’m not religious though,” the woman told Quentin. He laughed lightly.

“Neither am I, but trust me, you’ll feel much better afterwards.”

“And what happens if I lie?”

Quentin stopped laughing, pondering the question.

“Maybe don’t try that,” he answered. The woman accepted the request, and Quentin put on his crown again. After about a couple of seconds in silence, Quentin’s tablet notified him of a new work order. He mentally cursed the manager for not letting him have more time to rest as he pulled out his tablet.

“Perform Repression work on 1.76 MHz.”

Based on the name and the image, that of a containment room but the image is highly digitally corrupted, he wondered if he should ask someone for earplugs. Before he left for his work, he turned to the woman once more.

“I’ve gotta go now, but it was nice talking to you. What’s your name?” He asked, holding out a hand to shake.

The woman hesitated.

“You do know we have a high chance of dying, right?” She responded

“All the more reason to get to know each other now, rather than later, when we might already be dead.”

She knew that if she gave him her name, that would make a bond that would sting when it was inevitably broken. It wasn’t that she was cold, she just didn’t want to deal with the unnecessary pain.

_Still,_ she reasoned. _I might as well have at least one person mourn for me._

She shook the new employees’ hand, both of them smiling.

“I’m Lilith. Glad to have known you.”

\---

As Quentin entered the containment unit, he noticed two distinct things. One, the unusual fishy stench emanating from an unknown location, and two, the table with a radio sitting on top of it, with white noise radiating from it. Quentin approached the radio, checking it for anything abnormal about it. He found nothing unusual about the radio itself, it was a simple handheld radio with an antenna, buttons which allowed him to talk into it (which he didn’t try in fear that doing that would injure him), and a dial setting the frequency, which was set to the obvious frequency, 1.76 MHz, which he didn’t know was possible or not, since he wasn’t a big technician. He glanced towards the back of the room.

There was a rack with similar looking radios turned off, confirming Quentin’s thought that the abnormality was the frequency, not the radio. He placed the radio back down and stepped back. _How am I meant to repress this?_ At first, he wondered if he should just turn the radio off, but discarded that idea since that was less repression, and more just ignoring the problem. He opened up his tablet to figure out what to do, but instead of going into the work process, he opened up the encyclopaedia entry for 1.76 MHz.

He reasoned that, if he knew what it was the noise did, he could try to repress the effects of the noise. He felt a headache coming, but he knew that it wasn’t the abnormality attacking, but the white noise itself doing a toll on him.

“… violent tendencies flare rapidly due to 1.76 MHz’s influence.”

“… a mysterious voice was heard through the static… it appeared to be in distress and was asking for help.”

“This is a recording of the day we must never forget.”

Quentin turned the tablet off again, thoroughly shook on what 1.76 MHz was. He listened to the white noise once more. This time, he could hear a voice, just as the encyclopaedia said he would, and was definitely in distress. He grabbed the radio and held the input button as he spoke into it.

“I hear you. Who are you? Where are you? What’s happening?” he yelled into the radio.

“…sudden…aughtered…help…requesting ba…we need…ance…” the radio replied. Quentin couldn’t make out most of the words. He once again pressed the button.

“I can’t hear you! Please speak more clearly!” he knew what the outcome was, but he still wanted to try.

“…please…” The loud sounds of explosions rang throughout the containment unit, making Quentin almost drop the radio in surprise. But he didn’t drop it. He _couldn’t_ drop it. He had to save them. More sounds rang throughout the unit, such as screams, flesh-tearing, and gunshots. What was worse was that it didn’t sound like it came from the radio but was happening around him. The employee covered his ears in hopes that it would silence the noises, but it did nothing. He closed his eyes shut. The noise began to die down, but not completely. He slowly opened his eyes and saw the scene around him.

Bodies laid around him, blood covering the walls and floor. He couldn’t identify any of their clothes, their wounds, or their faces, and he was still in the containment unit. Yet he knew where he was. The unit was blurry, and the bodies were those who should never be forgotten. His thoughts his blurred as he saw them. Silence and a fishy smell filled the air. Quentin felt anger wash over him. All these bodies, those who lost their lives to this tragedy, have been forgotten by most. _Why?_ He wanted to make everyone remember the date. He wanted to hit something. He wanted to kill something. He wanted to do so many things to make people remember. He clutched his head and closed his eyes, attempting to come back to reason.

He had to forget the date. That was how to repress it, right? He tried to forget, but every time he tried, the screams kept coming back. His breathing became strained. If he didn’t resolve this soon, he would have another panic episode. Quentin opened his eyes. The bodies and blood were gone, and the room was clear once more. But not his thought. He looked at the radio. It was beginning to emit smoke. Quentin was worried that it was broken until it gave one last message.

“…please help us…”

His mind began to clear as he heard that, a new objective being set in his mind. He knew how to repress 1.76 MHz. He didn’t need to forget the event, how could he. He went to the back of the room and grabbed a radio, set it to 1.76 MHz, and set it on the table. But he didn’t need to remind others of this tragic event, that was unnecessary. He clipped the previous radio onto his chest and turned it off to let it heal from its ordeal of bringing up the ghosts of the past. If he truly wanted to repress 1.76 MHz, he’d have to make sure it never happened again.

Quentin left the room, relieved, but also a bit sad, to hear something else other than the noise from the radio.

\---

After the long, _long,_ day, Quentin had never felt gladder to go home. Or, at least, his new home. Quentin hoped that his room had a kettle, since he really needed some tea for his still ringing head. He took longer than he wanted to look for his room, which seemed to be a recurring theme for the day. He found his designated room and began to write in his personal password for the keypad, stopping when he heard someone move near him.

“What the fuck?” he heard a familiar voice say. He turned around and faced Lilith once again, visibly confused at his presence, exiting a room.

“What are you doing here?” he asked her.

“What does it look like? I live here. What about you?” Quentin raised his eyebrows, judging, at the question. “Oh,” she said, putting two and two together. “What took you so long to get to your room?”

“I got lost,” he answered, looking down at the floor.

“Well, at least you managed to get to the end of the day.”

“May they rest in peace.” Quentin opened his room and began to walk inside.

“You should check out the rest of the facility. I heard they pretty much have a small society in here,” she suggested.

“Maybe, but I’m way too fucking tired right now,” he replied, yawning to emphasize his reason.

“Well, just be sure to get dinner, it’d be a terrible idea to skip that for your first day.” Quentin held up an ok hand and went into his room without a word.

The room was bigger than expected, with it being more of an apartment than just a simple room. He found himself in the kitchen, which was small, but had enough to cook something if he didn’t want to eat at the cafeteria. He walked into the living room; it had no television, but it had a couch and a desk, so it was more of a study than anything. What’s more, was that it had the luggage that he brought, so at least he wouldn’t have to start from scratch. It led into two more rooms, a bathroom which Quentin decided wasn’t worth checking out right now, and a bedroom. The bed was small, and a cabinet stood at the side. _I should’ve joined sooner,_ he thought as he looked at what the apartment had to offer. He wasted no time, a first for the day, in getting changed.

The uniform was comfortable, but it did feel a bit stuffy. _Probably from the sweat from when I was running,_ he thought as he took his casual clothes out of his luggage and unbuttoning his clothes. He opened up the cabinet to put his clothes in. The cabinet was a bit unusual; whilst most of the compartments and drawers were normal, for him to put his normal clothes in, the large compartment on the right was made of metal, in contrast to the wood that made the rest of the cabinet. On the back of the compartment was a label with the word “Uniform” printed on it. It had certain spaces for his pants, shoes, baton, etc., but not enough room for more than one set. It didn’t take long for Quentin to figure out what it was for.

He attempted to move the cabinet, but to no avail, just as he suspected. Not wanting to investigate further, he simply placed his uniform into the cabinet, changed, and laid on the bed. It took all his self-control to not immediately fall asleep as soon as he hit the bed. The ceiling was a boring white, like the rest of the apartment. Quentin would have to redecorate the apartment soon. _I wonder if the facility has a furniture shop. Lilith did say it was a mini-society in here._ Quentin set an alarm for dinner, in the case that he dozed off. The bed did feel really comfortable, though that may have been because of the stress he was experiencing before.

Even after his encounter with 1.76 MHz, the radio he took from the unit sitting on the bedside table tuned in to a radio show he wasn’t listening to, his ordeal still wasn’t over. Before the day was finished, a loud foghorn rang throughout the facility and a robot appeared in front of him, producing more robots, usually fat or lanky robots. Quentin was told to not engage with them and to look away if one of the lanky robots killed anyone, which he thought was meant to be patronising, but after witnessing it, he had to take a minute to throw up. As he thought about that situation, a sudden thought began intruding on his mind.

_Just how many dead people have laid on this bed?_ He remembered what L corp really was and that where he lay, plenty more also laid. He wondered how long he would last and if he would be himself by the end. _Even if I do die, it’s not like I had much to live for anyway,_ he thought, chuckling a bit at his lack of self-respect. He checked his bedside drawer to get his mind off the morbid thoughts. Inside was a card with the Lobotomy Corporation logo printed on it. He opened up the card to read it. Quentin felt his eyelids getting heavier, so he only skimmed read it. It just said congratulations from the corporation which he was certain they just used a template with his name. He read the final line of the card before falling asleep, only waking up for dinner.

“…and remember, face the fear, build the future.”


	4. Face the Fear 2.1: Morning Coffees

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mondays amirite?

Quentin awoke in a haze to the sound of a radio show host. He reached for the alarm and shut it off. He got up, his back aching. As he looked over to his clock, he noticed that the alarm went off a couple of hours earlier than he had set it. He groaned and almost buried himself under his sheets when he noticed an urgent notification on his tablet. He grabbed it and read the notification.

“To all employees who have received this, please report to the Training Department by [REDACTED] a.m. for talent enhancement. Those not present will have deducted pay. Please note that this will go until breakfast, so wear your uniform. Have a great day, and remember, face the fear, make the future.”

Quentin groaned. It was way too early for him to function properly. He grabbed his thorn crown and press his palm against the thorns, the pain waking him up. He stood up, the familiar aching of a bad night’s rest all over his body, and walked to his cabinet. He opened up the uniform section and noticed the change in his uniform. His suit and baton from yesterday were gone, replaced by a black samurai armour and a katana. After the initial wave of confusion on how they managed to swap the clothes, he picked up both the armour and the sword. The labels on the compartments of the set were both labelled as “Life of the Daredevil”. He also noticed that the armour also came with an undersuit, the only thing that told Quentin that this was, in fact, his uniform. He wore his uniform with little question.

Despite the bulkiness of the armour and how hard it was, it was surprisingly easy to move in. The katana was the same shade of black as the armour. It was long like a katana should be, so Quentin couldn’t practice swinging it in his bedroom, and it was light. He wondered how effective it would be in suppressions, but it looked a lot more deadly than his original baton, so he wasn’t arguing. He placed the katana on his back, placed his crown on his head, grabbed his radio, set it to 1.76 MHz, and adjusted the volume so the static was nothing more than background noise. After being certain that his uniform was ready, he set off from his room to head to the Training department.

\---

Lilith was bored. And she assumed the rest of the people waiting there were as well. She sat on a random bench in the main room, waiting for the talent enhancement to begin. She was severely regretting not getting a coffee on the way, thinking she would have to get there as soon as possible, so not only was she bored, but she was almost asleep, only hanging on to active consciousness by a thread. _What a joke,_ she idly thought. She played with the safety of her revolver, a replacement for her baton from the previous day, the clicking being the only thing keeping her sane, ironic, considering what it was used for.

This gun, a dull grey with a somehow duller blue handle, didn’t leave physical holes, but psychological holes that leave an emptiness that will eventually overtake you. She knew this because she tested the gun on herself after noticing that the gun didn’t leave any marks on the desk she fired at in her room. The test on herself was planned after the less planned test on her desk. _If I shot myself again, would I feel more, or less bored?_ She decided that she wouldn’t test any further.

She heard some heavy steps coming towards her, stopping when it reached her. She turned to the person slowly. A large gruff man stood there, looking down on her, looking incredibly cross.

“You _do_ realise that doing that is quite dangerous, right?” he commented. If she was any more awake, she may have retorted. But she was on the verge of collapsing, so she simply looked up and down at the man. She knew that she shouldn’t judge people based on appearance, but who honestly completely follows that rule. Sure, you could keep a relationship going with your personality, but it’s going to be much easier to start that relationship if you didn’t look like you lived in the slums.

The man wore a regular suit with dark red body armour covering it. On his back was his weapon, a mace shaped like a cross with a skull on the intersection. Lilith, using all of the brainpower she could muster at the moment, deducted that it was One Sin and Hundreds of Good Deeds’ Ego. Considering that One Sin was the easiest abnormality within the entire facility, Lilith didn’t expect much from the person patronising her, but she also didn’t want to argue with anybody right now, so she placed her revolver back into her holster and turned on her tablet, hoping to find something on it to keep her pre-occupied until the time came.

“Oy, I’m talking to you.” Lilith placed her face on the table and groaned. _Maybe if I ignore him for long enough, he’ll leave._ Her theory was correct, for, after about ten seconds, she heard the sound of the man walking away, calling her names he would never call his mother in his life. She pried her face off of the cold table to see if the man was actually gone and saw another entering the main room. It was a familiar face that she at least knew was somewhat friendly.

Quentin was holding two large coffee cups and looked like he was buzzing, the complete opposite of Lilith. He saw her and lit up upon seeing one of the few friends he’d made in the day he’d spent in the facility. As Quentin began walking towards her, she wondered if she was in the mood to talk to _anybody_. Lilith eventually decided it might do her some good to talk to someone familiar, plus, she had the feeling that she could mooch of one of the coffees.

Quentin sat down and, before Lilith could convince the employee to be generous with one of his coffees, he slid one of the cups towards the exhausted employee. Quentin began speaking, the effects of the coffee prominent on his voice.

“Hey can you please take this? I got two of these since I was so tired and thought I’d needed two coffees but turns out these things are really caffeinated and I-“

“Woah, hey, calm down. Thanks for the coffee, but you really don’t need to tell your entire life story just to give me a coffee,” She said, taking a sip from the cup. It was, as Quentin said, very caffeinated. It was exactly was Lilith needed and she felt her mood heightening. Now that everything was much clearer to her, she began a conversation with her friend.

“What in god’s name are you wearing,” She said, flatly.

“Oh, this?” He said, grabbing a part of his armour. “Not entirely sure. It did replace my normal suit though, so I didn’t really have a choice in what I wore today. It’s called ‘Life of the Daredevil’, which sounds cool, but I have no idea what it means.”

“What are its stats?”

“What?” Lilith took another sip of her coffee.

“You weapon and armour can deal with different damage and defend against different attacks. My stuff, ‘Solitude’ I think it was called, deals well with mental damage. My gun drains mental health and my armour does well against White damage, but it isn’t really effective against physical damage.” Quentin looks confused. “Check your tablet,” she sighed. _I should go through my tablet more,_ he thought as it opened.

Now that his tablet had more apps now that he was a certified employee, he had to found out what app that would show his equipment. After enough trial and error (and help from the other employee), he found his Equipment app. Checking his armour first, it was designated as a TETH grade armour. He found out it was decent against White and Black, Pale would kill him almost instantly, and Red was incredibly reduced by his armour. Quentin almost brought it up, that he was resistant to physical damage whilst she was not, but he didn’t want to push his luck.

“Don’t worry about Pale damage, I’ve heard that basically nothing here does that type of damage,” she explained to him. Quentin was relieved; he continued on his quest for information. He checked his weapon. Despite being from the same abnormality, it was graded as a HE grade weapon, one rank higher than TETH. Lilith looked surprised.

“Lucky,” she mumbled, jealous of him. Not only was it a higher grade than hers, but it also did Pale damage.

“Now this is epic,” he said upon seeing his weapon details, grinning. Lilith responded with a piercing glare. One of the loudspeakers began to crackle to life.

“Attention, all employees within the Training department. Your talent enhancement will begin shortly. We will begin with fortitude training. All those who are assigned, please make your way towards the training room,” a voice that Quentin didn’t recognise but assumed belonged to the Sephirah of the training department. His tablet dinged, with a notification telling him to report for Fortitude training. Lilith’s tablet dinged with a similar notification.

“Well, looks like we’ve got to go to training. Talk to you later?” Quentin asked his friend, holding out a hand.

“Yeah, good luck,” Lilith responded, shaking his hand. They began to walk towards the training room, both of them feeling like they could take on the world.

\---

Quentin stumbled out of the training room, almost about to collapse. He went to the nearest bench and sat down, hard. He slumped over and almost began crying, barely holding it together. The enhancement was brutal, to say the least. He understood why, because he knew that he was now better in certain aspects, mainly his ‘stats’, but it was still back-breaking.

He first had to go through fortitude enhancement, which was just a fancy way of saying extreme exercise. Maybe he would’ve been fine with it if it was the last thing, but since it was the first, he was left sore for the rest of the enhancements.

Prudence was exactly what he expected, intensive studying. It reminded him of when he was back in high school, where his parents overworked him because he was ‘talented’. He still didn’t know what they saw in him. _At least I’m smarter, I think._

Temperance training was the least exciting and was a juxtaposition to the intense environment the previous enhancements took place in. He had to learn how to control himself and, whilst not as mentally nor physically demanding as the previous two, still required some intensive focus after old memories were forcibly brought up. He didn’t know how they did it, and he didn’t really want to know.

Whilst most people reported for the previous three pieces of training, only a few people, including Quentin, were selected to go to Justice training. Considering Justice had a weird level of importance given to it, Quentin was prepared for this enhancement to be the worst. Yet he was also curious. How do you make someone more just? Philosophy? Talk groups? _Law school?_ He wondered these things as he stepped into the training room. After seeing the machinery placed in the room, he realised that they weren’t going to beat around the bush. They were going to change his behaviour.

Naturally, Quentin (and a few other employees that were also in the room) was reluctant to step into the machines. He had no idea what they were going to do to him. Luckily, one of the more senior volunteers volunteered to go first, to ease everyone else. When he stepped onto the platform on one of the machines, several clamps went around their arms, legs, and neck to keep him in place as a syringe lowered from the machine, injected its contents into the employee. The employee closed their eyes as they fell asleep and several metal tools were lowered from the machine, ranging from saws, scalpels, to even more syringes.

The machine made quick work, apparently being an automatic process, the surgery only taking a minute. It was all happened so fast, but Quentin managed to witness the main steps of the process. In a flash, the employee’s skull was opened and the instruments began poking around in the brain, injecting, removing, and adding parts. When it was all over, the skull and the skin was sewed backed together in a way Quentin had never seen before, right before the employee woke up and was released. Only a single drop of blood was spilled. After speaking with the training manager to make sure that they were completely fine, they walked back to the waiting employees.

They communed with their friend, and as far as Quentin could tell, they were more or less the same as they were before the procedure and the incision point wasn’t visible in the slightest. Whilst this didn’t comfort Quentin in the safety of the procedure, he was at least sure enough that he would be himself after wards. Quentin didn’t feel any pain during and after the procedure. He couldn’t feel any scars left from it. Whilst he wasn’t keen on practically being lobotomised, he had to admit, it was refreshing to not have to do any work for this enhancement. He felt his personality was pretty much the same, yet there was something _off_ , but he couldn’t place his finger on it, so he couldn’t decide if it was good or bad.

After the whole procedure, Quentin wanted someone familiar to talk to, but Lilith wasn’t selected for Justice enhancement, so he assumed she already left for breakfast. Quentin felt his stomach rumble, and decided he should probably do the same. Just then, his tablet notified him. It was only some texts from Daniel, one from earlier, when he was undergoing Justice training, and one came from the moment.

“heard you just had talent enhancement, you ok?”

  
Daniel has sent an Image:

Quentin smiled as he typed out a confirmation of safety. He knew he was going to have to run to his room, which normally would worry Quentin, but this time, he felt as if though running that distance was nothing anymore.

\---

“What was it like?” Lilith unexpectantly asked Quentin. They were walking to their assigned department, that being the Training team. It was a bit annoying, having to walk all the way back to the main room they were in before.

“What was _what_ like?” Quentin responded to the question, already knowing the answer.

“Justice enhancement.” A look of discomfort dressed Quentin’s face, which Lilith noticed. “It must’ve been bad,” she continued.

“Not exactly.” He wasn’t entirely sure how to describe it, or even if it worked. “We had to step into machines as they performed surgery on our brains. It only took like a minute though.” Her eyes widened in shock. “Oh, we weren’t conscious for the surgery, if that’s what you’re thinking,” he clarified.

“I don’t see any surgical scars, and you seem to be acting around the same from before. You sure they did the surgery?” she asked.

“Well then that’d be really weird. They did the surgery on everyone else there, so I’m not sure why they wouldn’t do it on me.”

“Do you feel any different?” Quentin pondered that question.

“You’re probably going to have to get back to me with that question.”

They reached the main room of the training department. It looked _cool,_ for lack of a better word. The room looked straight out of a cyberpunk game, whilst still not being hard on the eyes. When Quentin looked up, he saw a void with golden rings spinning around it. He wasn’t sure if it was an abnormality, man-made, or what it was even for, but it sure looked cool. He could now appreciate the beauty of the room, now that it was later in the day and he wasn’t starving and buzzed. Before he let himself get to carried away with sightseeing, he turned to the surveillance camera and held a thumbs up to it, Lilith doing the same. After about a minute of lounging around, waiting to be sent to work, Quentin finally got an assignment. He checked the tablet.

“Perform Attachment work on Today’s Shy Look”

Another picture, a rack with dried skin in it with different faces, accompanied it. He turned to Lilith, only to see her sleeping on the room couch. He wondered if he should wake her up, but decided against it, reasoning that the other employees would wake her up when it was time. He picked up his sword that he was practising with previously, returned it into its sheath on his armour, and went along to find Today’s Shy Look.

\---

As he entered the Containment unit, he saw that the being that the picture used for his work order featured. Near the end of the containment was a drying rack, with a large amount of skin stretched on it. The skin had 5 faces carved on them, with emotions ranging from wildly happy to furious. The weirdest part of the unit to Quentin, however, was how that there was furnishing and other rooms to the unit, almost as if something was living in it. Quentin soon realised that someone was living in it when he heard shuffling behind the skin. When he faced the faces again, he saw that there were a pair of eyes staring at him from the smiling face. From behind the rack, he could see the person behind it was wearing brown robes and their feet was completely skinned, leaving only raw flesh. Blood was dripping from the person’s clothes.

“Good Morning. Today’s a nice day isn’t it,” the being behind the skin said, in a merry tone.

“I, uh, I guess. I don’t know what the weather’s like,” Quentin wasn’t sure what point he was trying to make in saying that, since it was certain that other person in the room didn’t know either.

“If today’s so nice, why aren’t you smiling? Are you perhaps shy?” Quentin began scratching his skin, feeling like there was something crawling on it. His mind began wandering.

“Sorry, I had to do some rigorous training earlier, so I’m not in the best mood.”

“Oh! Your willingness to sacrifice for your corporation. Thank you for your sacrifices!” He wanted to feel honoured that someone would thank him, but there was something in their tone that felt forced.

“You don’t have to thank me, I’m just doing my job.” Today’s Shy Look stayed silent, only blinking a few times.

“B-but your sacrifices. I should be happy, shouldn’t I?” they said. “I’m sorry, am I making you gloomy?” The abnormality began slouching, their voice being in stark contrast to the face they hid behind. Quentin began scratching his skin again but quickly stopped himself. His mind began to get fuzzy and his stomach felt like it was churning.

“You’re not making me gloomy, don’t worry. I’m fine,” Quentin quickly responded, hoping to raise the abnormality’s mood. The abnormality stood up straight again, staring at Quentin once more.

“If you’re fine then I’m fine,” they said, their merry tone returning. Almost like magic, his mind began to clear once more, but that pain in his stomach remained. Quentin decided it was time for the questioning.

“Is this skin yours?”

“Who else would it belong to? Please don’t touch it though, it’s quite delicate.” The tone of Today’s Shy Look made it seem like this was a completely normal thing to do

“Why did you flay your own skin in the first place?” They didn’t respond for a bit, thinking about the question.

“I guess I’m just shy. That’s all.” Quentin accepted the answer, not wanting to accidentally probe too deep. “Besides, now everyone is happy that I can express myself so clearly.” He wondered what kind of place they used to live in if someone skinning themselves just because they were shy was something to be happy about. Quentin checked his tablet to monitor the emotional state of the abnormality. It was elevated, and their stress level seemed to be at a safe level. He wanted to sit down on the chair present in the room, but stopped himself after reasoning that it’d be unfair to the abnormality and seeing the bloodstains on the seat, possibly from the abnormality. After listing Today’s Shy Look’s friendly behaviours, he began trying to relate to the abnormality.

“Y’know, I’m also kinda shy when I meet new people,”

“That’s a problem, you should always try to be more expressive. That’s what they always told me.”

“Who are they?”

“Those who I once lived with. They always told me to that I needed to stop being so sad and to express myself. One day, I took their advice,” they reminisced. Quentin felt sympathy towards them, knowing it was their fault that this person snapped. He closed his tablet after being confident that he recorded enough information and prepped himself to leave.

“Well, I have to leave now. It was nice talking to you,” he told the abnormality.

“Likewise. Goodbye, for now,” they responded. A hand raised from the robe, waving to the employee, the hand also being absent of any skin. “Don’t forget to always smile!” they added. Quentin never liked advice like that. He exited the room. The abnormality was certainly unsettling but was overall a pretty nice person. He liked the interaction.

Quentin hoped that more abnormalities would be like this.


	5. Face the Fear 2.2: Cheers for the Beginning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The new agents deal with ordeals for the first time.

Lilith was humming as she did her work. Normally, she doesn’t do such things, since she never knows when humming could upset the abnormality, plus the work was interesting enough to keep her preoccupied. But not this one. To her credit, the door wasn’t incredibly thrilling to look at. She was performing insight work on an abnormality known as ‘Lady Facing the Wall’, who was, believe it or not, a lady facing the wall. Lilith didn’t get a great look at her, since she only saw her when she entered the containment unit but got enough information.

She was naked, with inordinately long hair covering her head and face. She couldn’t see the abnormality’s face, but that was probably for the best. She also noted how the area surrounding around the lady was much darker than the rest of the unit, possibly with mould. Lilith wanted to indulge with her curiosity and look at the person in the room, but her instructions were very clear. Never look back at her whilst doing work.

She wasn’t sure what was harder, overcoming her curiosity and resisting the urge to look back, or cleaning the room whilst only facing one way. When she got to the mould, she stopped, not wanting to get too close to the abnormality. Now, all she had to do was to adjust the room temperature. If it wasn’t for the mumbling coming from behind her, she would’ve assumed that the abnormality managed to escape without her noticing. She was humming to drown out the mumbling, so she didn’t get too curious, but not even that was enough to drown her out when she began sobbing.

“Please… why won’t you look at me.” She was barely audible, but it was loud enough for Lilith to hear her. She began sweating, from either trying her hardest to not turn around, or from the temperature of the room. She lowered the thermostat.

“I’m so close, my hands will reach your neck soon.” The threat unnerved the employee, but she continued facing towards the door. Even if the abnormality was going to go through with her threat, Lilith reasoned that she could fend her off without turning around. Still, she was on guard. She finished her work quickly, hoping to get away from the abnormality as fast as possible. Lilith quickly began pressing her credentials into the keypad, watching with anticipation for the door to open. As the door opened and Lilith stepping outside the room, a loud ear-shattering scream came from behind the agent. For a normal person, this would be enough to turn around to check on the scream, but she knew better. She froze for a second, then took another step outside.

“Please, I’m begging you, please don’t leave me.” The door closed behind Lilith.

Her hands were shaking, and what faint colour her face had normally was gone. She began taking deep breaths, calming herself. _Get yourself together, you have a reputation to uphold._ After removing the fear she had in her system, she opened her eyes to go have some rest before she had to work again.

“Lily!” This time, she practically jumped. Luckily, it was only Quentin, immediately recognised by his bright blond hair with the dark brown crown in contrast with it. She almost shouted back at him, but quickly recomposed herself.

“Dear Lord, please don’t sneak up on me like that,” she asked. Quentin was a bit confused, since him walking around in his armour made quite a lot of noise, but he didn’t question her. “Also, my name is Lilith.”

The two agents lingered in the hallways for a bit, letting the nanobots and enkephalin in the air to help them recover. They exchanged stories of their recent work, Quentin being glad he wasn’t assigned to The Lady Facing the Wall, unsure if he could resist the temptation to turn. They were interrupted by the sound of the p.a. speakers playing a tune to notify that an announcement was coming. A voice that neither of them recognised announced the time, that being dawn. The male employee smiled, glad that it wasn’t anything more serious. His grin faded when he looked at Lilith however, seeing that she was grimacing.

“What’s going on?” he asked, fully showing the concern he had in his voice. Lilith looked at Quentin.

“Grab your weapon.”

“What?” Before any further explanation could be given, the loudspeaker began crackling back to life.

**Cheers for the Beginning  
** Let us light a flame yet more radiant in our lives; for life is a candlelight, destined to snuff out one day.

Demented circus music began playing throughout the facility, which both Quentin and Lilith immediately recognised as the theme for a certain circus that everyone feared. Quentin prayed that it wasn’t true, that they weren’t here, but Lilith knew better. She’d seen this from the previous day and was already prepared for the fight they were about to encounter. In a puff of smoke, a small jester clown appeared at the end of the hallway.

Unlike normal clowns that bring joy with their appearance (to most people), this one was made with pieces of flesh and tatters stitched together, impossible to exist by normal standards, but at this point, normality was long out the window. Instead of attempting to attack the two employees, it seemed to be more interested in something else; the containment doors. It attempted to input something into the keypad but could only hit the bottom of it when it jumped. Instead, it opted to place its hand onto the door, looking like it was channelling something.

“Get the fucking clown!” The two employees turned around and saw a group of employees from the department running down the hall. Both of the employees jumped into action, Lilith hastily drawing out her gun and firing at the jester, while Quentin clumsily unsheathed his katana while running to his target, cutting himself in the process. As Lilith’s bullets entered the clown, leaving no wound or trace, it began clutching its head with one hand, keeping the other one channelling whatever it was channelling, leaving it wide open for Quentin to thrust the sword into the flesh clown’s small body.

As he pulled the sword out, leaving a much smaller wound than Quentin was expecting, the clown began shaking violently and turned a crimson red, before exploding in a mess of blood and guts. The blood splashed on Quentin and the parts that weren’t covered by the armour began burning from the heat of the blood. The rest of the employees reached where the clown used to be, groaned in disappointment from the wasted energy they had to expend, and began walking back into the main room. Lilith walked to her friend to see if he was ok.

“You made that seem a lot worse than it really was,” he commented, still wiping the hot blood from his hands.

“Don’t get so cocky, it’s only dawn. It gets worse at noon,” she responded, recounting the large amalgamation of clowns from yesterday’s ordeal.

“Hey, at least it wasn’t anything worse from the Carnival. Who would’ve thought they would infiltrate the facility?” Quentin looked at his hands, bleeding and burnt from his recent encounter. He watched as his skin began to grow over his wounds as they healed, not even leaving scars. He was glad that the company had nanobots floating in the air to heal wounds when they occur, but it was so surreal to watch them work. The carnival music began to fade. Lilith tapped his shoulder, regaining his attention.

“Let’s go back to the main room,” she suggested. He only nodded in response, sheathing his sword again.

To live is to yearn and fight for our desires.

\---

Quentin was nervously drumming his fingers, with Lilith acting much calmer than her co-worker, but almost a nervous on the inside. Both were walking down a light purple hallway, their destination being the security department. This would be their first suppression order for their career, where they would have to track and kill a breaching abnormality. While troublesome, most ordeals were easier to kill than abnormalities, unless it was midnight, in which case, they would have to be on their top game. Though the abnormality they had to suppress was not one of their own department (it was from the Information department), they were still ordered to suppress it before it could cause more trouble.

“Fragment of the Universe has just entered the Security department. Suppress it quickly, before a disaster strikes,” the cold voice of Yesod blared from the speakers. They began to pick up their pace. No words were exchanged from their walk, both already know that they just wanted to see what the abnormality was. As they walked, a faint scream came from afar. A few seconds later, the door at the end of the hallway as an employee began running towards them, still screaming. The two sane employees readied their weapons, but the panicking employee simply ran right past them, tears streaming down their face. Lilith fired a few shots at the employee, but stopped when they got out of range. Somebody else would have to deal with them. They continued.

The scene was one of chaos. Several bodies were strewn around the room, most belonging to clerks, some belonging to agents, with large holes going straight through them. It was the ones with snapped necks that worried Quentin. Near the middle, the source of the corpses was there, the Fragment of the Universe. Nobody knew how, but the form of the Fragment was that of a child’s drawing of some tentacled monster. Its black spherical body stood on frail tentacles. It lifted one of its tentacles and pierced the skull of another employee, who immediately broke down crying, unmoving from their position. If nothing was done to them, they would soon die by their own hands.

Quentin wasted no time in getting close to the monster, slashing one of its legs with a swift blow. The Fragment began thrashing around in pain with one of its tentacles cutting Lilith’s stomach. Luckily, her armour negated most of the damage, but the pain was still there, and her mind was clouded with forbidden knowledge. She backed away from the abnormality and began firing not at the abnormality, but at the employee having a mental breakdown. They were singing an unidentifiable song as they wept. As the bullets penetrated the employee, the singing became quieter as the tears began to dry. As she reloaded, however, the agent reached for their weapon.

As they prepared to off themselves, Lilith quickly unloaded the bullets unto the agent. The agent stopped, looked around, and resumed attacking the breaching abnormality. Lilith let out a sigh of relief. Even though the Fragment of the Universe was still breaching, she was at least able to save one employee. _Pretty good for my first suppression._ Self-praise went through her head, only being interrupted by the sound of an agent falling to the floor, dead.

Quentin’s head was buzzing from all of the thoughts he had, some of his own, most forcibly brought to him by the abnormality. The rush he felt was indescribable, the fighting, the close calls, it was all so much. He was never much of a brawler, but even he had to admit, this all did feel like a game to him, and he was certain that the others felt that too until death, after all, that’s what they signed up for. It was thrilling. He made sure not to get too caught up with it though and focused on stopping the abnormality as fast as possible. As he, and other agents also suppressing, whaled on the fragment, it’s head that looked like it was split open began to open up his maw.

It began to sing a song that Quentin couldn’t describe, and he knew he shouldn’t be listening to. He grabbed his radio and set the volume to the maximum as fast as possible and covered his ears. The singing was drowned out by the white noise and screaming, either from the radio or from real life. Quentin watched as the unluckier employees began clutching their heads and eventually uncovered his ears once he saw the abnormality close its mouth. It was brutal and tiring, but soon, the Fragment of the Universe crouched down to the floor and stopped moving. There were no celebrations, only chatter on who would be on clean up duty. Quentin rushed over to Lilith before he could be nominated, almost tripping over a body. _Probably asleep,_ he pretended.

“You alright?” he asked his friend.

“I have a massive headache, my chest hurts, plus I’ve had to witness the death of several people. Overall, pretty well,” she answered, with Quentin laughing a bit in response. He looked over all of the dead employees. He felt a bit sick from looking at the various wounds that were inflicted on them, but he handled it much better than usual, though he mentally admitted that that was probably because of the drugs in the air.

“Can’t wait ‘till we have to deal with the stronger abnormalities,” he chuckled, letting a bit of nervousness slip into his voice. Lilith didn’t speak, but nodded to agree with Quentin. _Can’t believe that was only a TETH._ Both went back into the hallways, dallying back to their own department.

“What do you think Khanna and Daniel are up to?” he asked Lilith.

“None of our concern, for now at least,” she answered coldly.

\----

“What do you think Quentin and Lilith are up to?” Khanna asked Daniel.

“I heard that Fragment of the Universe escaped, and they were selected for suppression,” he answered, placing another chip into his mouth and biting down. Khanna looked at Daniel with wide eyes.

“That thing? For their first suppression? A-are they de-“

“Nah, they’re fine. Can’t say the same for some others.” Khanna sighed, relieved for her friends. “Don’t you think it’s a bit wrong to feel happy for them if so many other people died?” he continued.

“Maybe, but admit it, you’re happy for them as well,” she retorted, her usual playful tone returning after the initial shock. As he placed another chip into his mouth, Daniel shrugged. “Still, would’ve been better if they had to deal with an easier abnormality like Forsaken Murder,” she commented.

“The manager doesn’t just let abnormalities out for people to train, you know.”

“Then you explain how such an easy abnormality escaped.” Daniel laughed, since he had no way to refute that. “Is it nearly lunch yet? I’m getting hungry. Can I have some of those chips?” Daniel moved the chip bag away from his colleague. “Not yet, we haven’t dealt with the noon ordeal yet,” he answered.

“Oh yeah, can you check what colour the ordeal is?” Daniel turned on his tablet and checked the time, getting oil on the screen. He grimaced as he saw the colour of the noon ordeal.

“Oh fuck,” he cursed in response to the ordeal and the amount of oil he got on the screen.

“Purple Noon?”

“Purple Noon.”

\---

“…and that was the story of how you killed your father.” The Old Lady on her rocking chair finished her story, and Quentin, sitting on the floor in front of her, wasn’t sure whether he should applaud, weep, or stay silent. It probably didn’t matter to the lady, who was nearly deaf. The story was amazing, but Quentin didn’t have the heart to tell her that his father was still alive and well from when he last checked. Quentin had listened to her last couple of stories, some familiar children’s fables, other ones that never existed, and was enjoying every word she was saying since she reminded the agent of his dead grandmother.

Quentin was still on guard however, since Lilith was very vocal about her distaste of the Old Lady, the abnormality being the reason she almost killed herself the other day. Quentin didn’t know how though. Did she hear a story that shouldn’t be able to exist? Did she get reminded of past regrets brought up in the story? Or was it the almost suffocating loneliness that seemed to hang in the room when Quentin entered. Either way, he was sure that, whatever it was, it wasn’t happening to him. Sure, he had a mild headache from trying to comprehend certain parts of the story, but nothing too serious.

“Dearie, dearie… would you like to hear another story?” the old lady croaked out.

“Sorry, but I have to go now,” he quickly said, not wanting to push his luck with the stories. He wasn’t sure if she heard that, but she tilted her head down with a depressing look on her face.

“Please return sometime soon, I do enjoy the company.” Quentin simply said, “I will,” and left the containment unit, feeling the engulfing solitude return to the room. The maroon hallways were full of agents for some reason, all with a look of annoyance. Lilith was nowhere to be found. Concerned with a lot of things, Quentin pulled out his tablet and began to text his friend.

Now chatting with **Lilith**.

“Hey, where are you? Why is everybody in the hallways?”

“I got temporarily transferred to the Security Department to make up for the lost employees”

“also idk, I’m going to ask someone about it now”

“Good idea. I’ll catch with you later”

“bye”

“Bye”

Quentin turned his tablet off and made his way to the hallway doors, which were guarded by a senior employee. As he stepped up to them, he was pushed back by the agent.

“Sorry feller, but we’ve got orders to make sure none of y’all go into the main rooms ‘til noon strikes.” A clerk walked to the door, and the agent stepped out of the way for them, letting through.

“And why do they get to go through?” Quentin asked with an annoyed tone.

“Cause there’s the purple noon ordeal.” Quentin was still a bit unsure on what exactly an ordeal was, but since they were always brought up at a specific time, he’d assume it was the creatures that appear at those times.

“What’s the purple noon?” he asked the agent blocking his way.

“You’ll see.” As they said that, a loud rumbling went through the facility as the P.A systems began to announce the time, followed by an eerie noise.

**Grant us Love  
** We could only hear the weakest and faintest of their acts. We sought for love and compassion from them

“That’d be ‘em,” the agent noted, stepping away from the door. As they did, almost everyone’s tablet went off at once, all with the same order displayed on them with a map on it, showing their department as the location of their order.

“Suppress Grant us Love.”

Quentin went through the door and found the nearest elevator. As he pressed the button to get him to the main room, more employees began filing on, pushing the nervous employee to the back. Feeling his back being pressed uncomfortably against the rail, he decided that now was the perfect time to check what Grant us Love was. After enough trial and error, Quentin finally managed to bring up the information of the ordeal. It was a black damage dealer, so he had to mentally and physically prepare himself, and it was normal against Pale damage, which made Quentin nervous. It was the HE lettering that stressed him out the most though. The door of the elevator opened, and all the agents began to walk into the main room, witnessing the scene that befell them.

In the centre of the room, a large, black monument stood there with glowing purple runes engraved on it. Several large black tentacles emerged from the monument, waving gently in the air. At the bottom of the monument was an inordinate amount of blood and guts, only recognised as clerks from the clothes that survived the crushing. Quentin almost threw up upon seeing what was left of the corpses but managed to keep it in. A low deep sound reverberated off of the walls that was somehow slowly beginning to burn his skin and hurt his head.

The first agent began running towards the monument, setting off a wave of other brave agents to attack the monument. It wasn’t attacking the employees, but Quentin still didn’t want to stay there for long, lest his flesh also begins to burn up. Without warning, the tentacles began to retract as it looked like it was charging something. Many employees began to brace, fearing the worst. The tentacles then quickly stretched itself as a large pulse came from the monument, not affecting the employees but causing the department to blackout for a couple of seconds. He didn’t understand what it was trying to do, but Quentin assumed it was an attempt to shut down the power.

“It’s trying to shut down the containment doors. Hurry up and kill it!” one of the senior agents commanded. _How the fuck am I meant to swing this damned sword faster?_ The command seemed to work, however, since before it could cause another blackout, the tentacles suddenly went limp and the runes were no longer glowing. Quentin was panting heavily from the exhaustion and the pain he was feeling. He checked his skin, which was now red from the burns he had sustained; nothing some thousands of nanobots can’t fix. He looked around.

As far as he knew, nobody, besides some unlucky clerks who weren’t trained for these types of situations, had been killed by the monument’s attacks. In fact, only clerks had been killed by the monument, the majority of those clerks killed by the monument landing, only identifiable as clerks from the pieces of uniform that survived.

As the adrenaline from the fight wore off, what the scene was dawned on him. The smell of blood was thick and suffocating, but Quentin managed to keep his breakfast in. Some definite progress. One of the main room doors opened, as someone walked in with metal steps, which Quentin immediately identified as the Training department Sefirot. A small bronze robot with an antenna on the top. Her name was displayed on her head, identified as “Hod”.

“Great job! However, we do need some people to help clean up the room, including the monument. Do we have any volunteers?” Some employees held their hands up. Quentin didn’t want to actually clean up, but he held his hand up anyway.

“Great! Now, you do have to clean up the bodies, so please go to the storage areas and get body bags for any bodies that apply, and a spatula for the others,” Hod joked, giving a metallic laugh, which was responded by about half of the employees also laughing, and the other half groaned. Quentin noted that almost all of the senior employees were the ones who groaned. As the employees began to disperse, Quentin quickly said: “I’ll be on body duty.”

It was disgusting, but he wanted to be able to handle death. His volunteering was met with some weird looks from the other volunteers. “I guess I’ll be on mop duty,” another added, which lead to more people assigning themselves their roles. Quentin’s stomach rumbled, hungry for lunch, which would be arriving soon. As he accidentally stepped into a mushed pile of organs, he intensely hoped that he would be able to get some tea at the cafeteria.

We cannot understand them, nor will they understand us.


	6. Face the Fear 2.3: A Quite Forgettable Luncheon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The agents share a meal, then work on more monstrosities. Par for the course.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There are references to cutting in this chapter, but nothing is shown. If this kind of stuff makes you uncomfortable, skip the first part until the first line, that's when that section ends. Otherwise, enjoy this chapter, or else.

Quentin was crying. He couldn’t help himself. The hands floating in the blood belonged to those he once loved, but he had no idea who they were, and he could see the hands reaching out to him. Quentin attempted to suppress his depression by ignoring the two hands in the hand, but whenever he looked at any part of the flesh bathtub, he was reminded of past and future hardships. He wiped the tears from his face. He wasn’t sure how he was meant to perform attachment on this abnormality, but that’s how he felt about most abnormalities.

The bath was made of flesh covered in scars and had two large closed eyes, so Quentin was on the fence on whether the bath was alive or not, yet he still felt some human connection to it, so instead of attempting conversation, he attempted to share an emotional connection with the bathtub. _Can’t believe I actually have to do empathise with a bathtub._ He looked at the pool of blood in the tub and the pale hands in it, tears returning to his face.

He reached out for one of the hands and held it, the hand grabbing back. He felt the Bloodbath tug at his arm, trying to make him join the other hands, but it wasn’t strong enough to pull him in. Quentin considered pulling back, but he didn’t want to see what was left of the employees who succumbed to the depression. The hand softened its grip, with Quentin doing the same. Bloodbath didn’t react, but its stress level began to lower. Tears began to land on the tub.

“I-I’m sorry, there’s no-nothing I can do.” He didn’t know what he was sorry for, or what exactly what the Bloodbath did, but he had enough information to assume what the abnormality represented. His wrist began to ache. He felt a knife in his hand, even though he never took a knife into the containment unit, the only sharp object he brought in was his katana, and he wasn’t even sure if that could cause a major physical cut.

He looked at the knife in his hand, already well used. It, and the Bloodbath, was calling out to him, telling him what to do next, which he already knew what to do. He looked at his wrist and began to sweat. Was he even strong enough to do it? Was he even in the right mindset to do it? Was he even able to make a clean cut? He brought the knife up to his wrist and…

…placed the knife back down next to the bathtub. He didn’t feel any need to cut himself right now, no matter how much the bathtub convinced him. Maybe back before he had this job, he would be more open, but ever since he joined Lobotomy Corporation, he really felt like he’d gotten his life back together. He opened the containment door and left the room, before the hands of the Bloodbath could pull him into the inescapable despair. Quentin couldn’t die right now anyhow, he had to have lunch first.

\---

When you become an agent in Lobotomy Corporation, especially in facility X-394, you’re basically signing away your entire life. Even if you’re not brutally killed by an abnormality, you still can’t resign from the job. Well, you could, but almost everyone knew that even that wasn’t an option if you wanted to live. In short, you were here for life. Those who didn’t understand this was doomed from their first day. Naturally, when your company is primarily made out of workers who were living there, you’d want to make your food good. Quentin thanked the company for at least understanding this part. His ham and cheese sandwiches were classic and nostalgic, and the coffee was comfortably flat, much better than the ones he had before dawn.

His friends were late, which made sense for Daniel and Khanna since they were in lower departments, but Lilith was a bit more puzzling, since although they were in different departments, their departments were in the same level. After overthinking about Lilith’s safety, the three of his friends walked into the cafeteria. Daniel was leading, who looked like he missed a couple of hours of sleep, with Khanna and Lilith following shortly behind. Khanna was ruffling Lilith’s hair, who was obviously annoyed about her hair being messed up. Khanna had a mischievous smile on her face towards her junior employee, but Lilith looked angry at the very existence of Khanna. After grabbing their lunches, they joined Quentin at the lunch table. Daniel was the first one to sit down, with his fried rice and long black coffee that he drank like it was water.

“Hey Dan, what’s happening?” the junior employee asked his friend.

“Not much, what’s up with you?” he replied.

“I had to face this thing called ‘Grant us Love’ or something. Pretty sure it was the purple noon.” Daniel had an exasperated look on hid face. “Ugh, yeah, those things. Those things are the bane of Lobotomy’s existence. You should’ve seen the breaches we had to deal with after that event.” Khanna suddenly sat down, eating some pasta with a coke sitting next to her plate.

“Hey, uh…” Quentin trailed off. His thoughts raced when he attempted to make up a nickname for her. “…Kane.” Khanna laughed a bit. “That’s a new one. What’re you talking about?” she asked her two colleagues. “Quentin here,” Daniel reached out to ruffle Quentin’s hair, who quickly hit his hand away, “had to face the purple noon.”

“Oh shit, Grant us Love? How many died?”

“Only clerks were killed, but trust me, there was a lot. And guess who decided to volunteer to cleaning duty?”

“Really? I just left the room before I could be nominated. There’s no way I was cleaning up all that,” Lilith commented, sitting down. Her lunch was like Quentin’s, but her sandwich had a lot more veggies and with tea instead of coffee.

“Hey Lily, how was the ordeal on your department?” he said, realising his mistake too late. “ _Lily?_ ” Khanna began grinning wildly again and returned to messing up Lilith’s hair with a noogie, which Lilith pushed away quickly. “Can you not?” Lilith harshly said.

“What? Can’t I be happy for you? You’re actually talking to people.”

“I was doing that long before I joined this facility, stop acting like I’m some social outcast just because I was a neet.”

“Oh c’mon, you barely went outside.”

“The violet ordeal went about as well on our end as it did on yours, Quentin,” Lilith said in an attempt to change the topic, which Quentin was thankful for, since he did not want to be in the middle of whatever the hell that was. Khanna went back to her pasta with an annoyed pout. “Though I still have no idea why you’d want to clean up that mess,” she continued.

“Easy. I’m squeamish around the dead, so I decided to try and overcome that disgust. Basically, exposure therapy,” he answered, drawing up topics he remembered in his high-school psychology class.

“Ah, good idea, considering what you’re going to see later on,” Daniel agreed. “Just don’t get too comfortable with the dead; we already have enough edgy freaks.”

“How do you find the abnormalities?” Khanna asked, attempting to re-join the conversation.

“I had an encounter with a young girl who was completely burnt and a lobotomised serial killer, who weren’t even close to the weirdest thing I’ve seen since I joined,” Lilith answered.

“I saw some dude who skinned themselves to make facial expressions, an old lady,” Lilith grimaced at the mention of the Old Lady, “and a flesh bath.”

“Oh, that’d explain the tear marks on your face,” Daniel told. “R-really?” Quentin responded, rubbing his face to erase any marks.

“No.” Daniel laughed slightly. Quentin was unimpressed. “What did you do with the tub?” he continued. “I held one of the hands floating in the blood,” he explained. Daniel and Khanna looked surprised and Lilith looked confused.

“You must be very confident to hold them,” Khanna told him.

“Nah, he’s just an idiot,” Daniel explained. “H-Hey!” Quentin responded, but didn’t follow up on since he didn’t really have any evidence against his friend’s accusations. “Well anyway, what about you? What stuff do you get to see down there?” he asked back.

“We’re in Central Command, so we see a lot of things,” Khanna responded. “A few highlights are a box you’re not allowed to look at, a pair of shoes, and Big Bird who is _not_ from Sesame Street,” she elaborated. A loud alarm began to go off, signifying that the lunch break was over. Quentin began to finish off his remaining sandwich and chugged down the coffee, letting it burn his tongue.

“We gotta go. If we let the second alarm ring, that’ll come straight out of your pay,” Daniel explained, motioning to the employee. Quentin and Lilith parted ways with Khanna and Daniel as they advanced to their departments.

\---

The two junior employees walked in silence, already having caught up with each other during lunch. Still, Quentin had a few questions left.

“So, what’s up with you and Khanna? Are yo- “

“Sisters. We’re sisters. She’s the older one, as you can see, and she joined Lobotomy Corporation before I did,” she said stonily. Quentin was surprised with how easy it was to get an answer like she wanted to tell someone for a while now. He opened his mouth to ask the obvious question but was immediately cut off by Lilith.

“No, she wasn’t the one to convince me to join. It was actually the other way around. I applied for the company and she decided to apply as well, either to annoy me or because she actually loved me. Either way, it still annoyed me. Guess who got accepted and who got rejected?” her facial expression suddenly became one of anger and annoyance, but quickly collected herself. “But yeah, she wanted to turn down the offer because of me, but I told her to go ahead anyway. I still have no idea what they wanted in her that wasn’t in me, but here I am now. In all honesty, I’m glad to see that she’s fine and well, but I’m still a bit salty about our past.” She finished talking and took a large sigh. “Sorry, I’m rambling.” Quentin quickly attempted to comfort his friend.

“Oh, no don’t worry about that Lily. It’s fine to get these things off your chest, especially in this facility,” he told her, patting her on the shoulder. She took another deep breath in.

“Yeah, maybe. It’s been so long since we’ve talked, yet she acts like it’s barely been a week.”

“Well, her doing that might just be her showing you her love. This job does have a high mortality rate, so wouldn’t you be worried that you’d never see your sibling again.”

“…that’s right. I know that, I just wanted to vent.” Quentin smiled whole-heartily.

“I’m always here if you need someone to talk to,” he told her. Lilith smiled faintly.

“Thanks, Quentin.”

A few more minutes passed in silence, but this time was a lot more comfortable. It was broken by a sudden notification on Quentin’s tablet.

“Perform Repression work on Today’s Shy Look.”

 _Oh nice!_ They were already in the hallway that contained Shy Look.

“Sorry Lily, I gotta do some work. Talk to you later?” he told her.

“Yeah, see you later.” Quentin went off to the containment door as Lilith entered the elevator. He looked through the door’s window to see the state of Today’s Shy Look and was happy when he saw the body behind the grinning face. He quickly opened the door, too fast to notice the person shift to the sad face.

\---

Quentin’s skin was peeling, either from his own scratches or from some unknown source in the unit, and he couldn’t concentrate. He made sure to quickly head to the main room, where the regenerators ran the fastest before he passed out. After not finding Lilith in the room, he found the nearest couch in the room and crashed into it, letting himself nap as his skin fused back together. He was awoken by his friend looking over him, looking mildly cross.

“About time you woke up. Do you know what time it is?” she asked the confused employee. Before he could answer, she said, “It’s almost dusk. We have to get ready for the next ordeal,” before dragging him off the seat, his body landing on the floor with a soft clunk. He checked his skin, which was expectantly healed.

“What’s the ordeal?” he asked. “Green dusk, we had to deal with it yesterday, remember?” He did. He remembered the large machines that appeared in hallways that would produce robots, some of which had very little respect for the dead. “Kinda? I was told not to deal with any of the robots and to focus on getting away from them, so I only know what’s appearing, not what they do,” he explained.

“Good, then we’re on the same level,” she said, smirking a bit. A time announcement began playing, warning everyone of the time. Lilith began to unholster her gun, whilst Quentin continued to listen to the speakers. A loud foghorn followed the announcement as the Green Dusk began.

 **Where We Must Reach  
** We constructed a looming tower to return whence we came.

Nothing appeared in the main room, but a notification came in telling the employees to suppress the ordeal, their location being in the hallways.

“These things apparently deal physical damage, so I can’t deal with them head-on,” Lilith explained. He was about to question her excuse, when he remembered what her armour protected against. “I’ll stay near the doors to shoot at the things, but if it starts getting dangerous, I’m out,” she continued. Quentin sighed, knowing this was just a fancy way of telling him he’d have to do more work than usual. It made sense since his armour was great against physical attack, but that didn’t stop it from Quentin feeling bitter. He sucked up his pride and began to rush to the hallways.

A large machine was planted near the middle of the hallway, just as Quentin remembered. A few more agents were approaching the machine, with some already firing at the ordeal. As Lilith began firing over Quentin, the male employee began running towards the machine, immediately slashing it. It didn’t seem to do much damage, which he was expecting. _Can’t expect to damage the soul of a machine._ A light on the side of the machine began to fill up, opening a hatch on the side of itself when it filled up completely. Quentin quickly backed away from the hatch, already anticipating its next action, but an unlucky clerk who was running around panicking was quickly impaled through the chest by a lance from the machine, their blood splashing the wall as they died instantly.

A lanky humanoid robot began emerging from the machine, using their other its hand to scrape the body off its lance that replaced one of its hand, its many gears clicking with every movement. As the body hit the floor, the robot looked down on it with its red eyes and began to lift its lance, before stabbing the corpse multiple times before it was destroyed beyond recognition, splashing blood on its old cloth and on nearby employees. Quentin had seen it before, but it was still draining to watch. Two more robots emerged from the large machine, both with rectangular chassis, a gun and a saw replacing their hands, and more gears, just like the other robot.

It was at this point where Quentin turned around and saw Lilith quickly leaving the room. The robots began firing at everything in front of them, dealing small, but noticeable damage. Quentin ignored the bullets hitting his armour and instead went for the lanky robot, knowing that they would be easier to deal with. Him, alongside some other employees, began rushing the robot as it attempted to thrust its lance into them, but was promptly dismantled after a couple of seconds. But that was enough time for the other robots. Quentin heard the sound of a saw starting up and was too late to dodge out of the way. He screamed in pain as the saw began to dig into his shoulder, not cutting too deep, but leaving a nasty gash.

“Fuck!” he screamed, before striking the robot in retaliation. It let out another attack, this time attempting to attack someone near Quentin instead of on him. He thought that the employee would be able to endure the attack, but he noticed that their armour was Zayin, a hallmark of a newbie. The saw went straight through them, the agent spilling an inordinate amount of blood and screams before their body hit the floor, now in two. Quentin began to sweat and turned his attention to the robot. It wasn’t attacking. Instead, it was in a compact form, all of its limbs had receded into itself and it was completely still, save for the movements it made when an agent attacked it. He worried that it was charging something but didn’t waste the chance to freely attack it. Before it could return back to normal, a strike was made that broke the robot, all of its limbs falling off.

That wasn’t the end, since the other robot was now approaching the employees. Quentin sliced the robot with his sword, gaining its attention and drawing their weapon. _Why me?_ The robot aimed their gun downwards and attempted to kneecap him by shooting him through the folds in his armour that let him bend it, but the armour still protected him mostly. The robot followed up the attack by sweeping at his legs with the saw. Quentin backed up, but the saw still hit his legs. He staggered and braced for another attack, but the robot didn’t get another chance to attack, since it was clobbered by some re-enforcements.

Quentin was hurting all over, but he ignored the pain and walked towards the machine and began to attack it. They got some decent damage in. Unfortunately, the machine quickly recharged itself and a saw swung from the machine, fatally cutting an employee. Three more robots emerged from the machine, this time, all were the rectangular robots.

Quentin was trembling. He was weak from the attacks and he wasn’t sure if he could survive more of this. As he thought that, some more employees arrived, two of which gave an impressive aura. One was wearing a pink army uniform with a sniper rifle that was a similar shade, and the other had a suit that was composed of pink slime and held a beer mug full of the slime.

“ALEPH Squad is here!” someone yelled. Quentin wondered what Aleph meant, but he had no time to worry about that. A turret came down from the ceiling and began firing shots at the employees, the shells dispersing a cloud that Quentin realised were nanobots when his wounds began healing. The manager had condemned them to endure more of the pain. The three robots were like a firing squad, quickly unloading bullets into anything in front of them. Quentin expected the re-enforcements to help with the robots, but instead, the two high-level employees began attacking the machine, the sniper rifle leaving white mist wherever it hit, and the slime being launched from the mug, dissolving whatever it touched.

It was a good plan, but he didn’t appreciate it. He held out, attacking the robots again. Soon, the combined fire and the damage his body had sustained made it too hard to stand, and Quentin collapsed to the floor. He was barely holding on to life, and a robot began to stand over him, raising their saw. Quentin braced, only to hear the sound of something melting. The robot was now covered in the slime and was rapidly dissolving. Quentin didn’t have the strength to thank his saviour. Quentin laid there for an indiscriminate amount of time, too weak to continue fighting.

He didn’t know how long it took, but eventually, the commotion died down. No ticking, no screaming, just silence. Quentin was still in pain, but he was no longer bleeding. He would live, that much he was sure of, and he fist-bumped the air to celebrate his survival, immediately regretting the action as his arm began to scream out in pain. His radio began to crackle back to life, getting louder. He quickly took it off his armour, checking to see if more voices would come through 1.76 MHz, and they did, but it wasn’t the regular voices in distress. He clicked his radio to receive.

“Oh thank god, you actually picked up,” Lilith said through the radio. _How is she calling me?_

“How are you calling me?” he asked.

“Through the call feature? I tried texting you, but you didn’t respond.” He figured out that his radio was picking up calls, which was a neat feature.

“Sorry about that, I was busy being shot,” he replied with some sass.

“Is the ordeal over yet?”

“Yeah, I think.”

“Are you ok?” Quentin attempted to focus on points where he was hurting but gave up when he realised that it was everywhere.

“Still breathing, but I’m in agony.”

“Well, it’s the end of the day, so you can just rest it off. You need my help?” He attempted to move his legs but couldn’t.

“Yeah, I can’t move and I’m about to faint. Can you drag me to my room please?” A sigh came from the radio.

“Alright, but you owe me.”

“Thanks.” A click came from the radio and the static began coming back. He clipped his radio back to his chest plate, and let his arms slump to the floor, his hand touching what felt like the leg of an unmoving body. Quentin hoped that they were just asleep. He felt tired himself. His eyelids became heavier and heavier until he closed them, falling into a deep sleep.

There wasn’t an answer. We didn’t find a single thing we wanted. We only witnessed the death of life itself.


	7. Face the Fear 3.1: Punch the Clock

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Daniel gets mad, causing Quentin and Lilith to want to play detectives.

Quentin’s alarm was blaring. He slapped the snooze button and slept for 5 more minutes. He’d done this for almost every day in the week he’d been working there, and every time he awoke after those 5 minutes, he’d always feel much more refreshed than if he’d woken up on time. After around the 3rd day of rushing to get himself ready for the day, he’d just set his alarm 5 minutes earlier, and that seemed to do the trick, allowing him to get those crucial 5 minutes and actually get up on time. His alarm went off again, this time getting Quentin to open his eyes to face the day. It seemed to be morning (or at least morning to the facility, Quentin had no idea what the true time was after his body got adjusted to the facility time zone), which meant no talent enhancement or urgent assemblies, which was always a plus for him.

Quentin turned the alarm off and got out of bed, tearing himself away from the warm embrace of his blankets. He grabbed his tablet to check for any notifications and texts. There were none. Weird, he thought. Usually, Daniel would’ve sent him a text sometime before morning, ranging from times where he would wake up to what would be 2 in the morning, consisting of either a meme, something weirdly philosophical, or a threat. This morning, however, there was no text from him. Quentin didn’t think too hard about and continued with his morning routine. He did some light exercise, something he began doing way before joining Lobotomy Corporation, and wandered around his apartment for a bit.

It was looking a lot more aesthetically pleasing than when he first started his life here, buying furniture and decoration from the shop he found in the facility. Lilith was right, it was practically a mini-society within the facility, with shops, some cafes in case the cafeteria wasn’t your style, and it even had a library that had a weird sign claiming that it would expand in the future, which Quentin was excited for. The shop was peculiar, to say the least. It had normal furniture, to liven up the place, but it also had some more decorative objects, some even relating to certain abnormalities within the facility. He didn’t know about half of the abnormalities shown or if they were even in the facility, nor who would’ve made them, but he didn’t care.

He went into the bathroom and quickly unmade his hair. He pondered important questions, such as what he would serve himself as he opened his closet and began to put on his uniform, which he could’ve done after his breakfast, but it saved him time, even if it was a bit uncomfortable. He looked at his designated armour for the day. Still the same samurai armour he’d been wearing for the week. He sighed in disappointment.

After a few days in the upper departments, he and Lilith had just been transferred to Central Command, the same department as Daniel and Khanna. Although they weren’t on the same part of the department, since the department was so big, the recently installed elevators made it a breeze to any floor there quickly. He was slightly jealous of Lilith, since whilst he wasn’t given new E.G.O equipment, his companion did. A fancy ice-blue coat and a spear that had a blade made of ice. She made it her job to flaunt it off subtly to Quentin. He placed his katana back into its sheath and walked into his kitchen/dining “room”. Quentin placed some bread into his toast and looked at his decoration as he waited, smiling as he looked at it. He still couldn’t decide whether he liked the small cactus he bought, which he wondered would be able to flower in the facility, or the poster of One Sin he found. Like it was mention before, Quentin wasn’t a religious person, but he had to admit...

It looked pretty cool.

\---

“You haven’t seen them either?” Lilith asked Quentin.

“No. Why else would I be asking you where they are?” He responded.

“Let’s not worry too much, they could’ve just left early. Hell, they might’ve been selected for talent enhancement.” Quentin shrugged. She had a point, and they knew they were alive since they ate dinner with them, but just to be sure, when they got to the lower Information department room’s elevator, they selected the lowest floor of the Central Command department. After a few seconds, they stepped out of the elevator and did a quick scan of the agents in the department. They spotted Khanna in the area, who immediately ran up to them.

“Hey, guys! Have you seen Daniel? I tried to call him, but he won’t pick up,” She asked the two agents. Lilith shook her head. Thoughts raced through Quentin’s anxious mind.

“There’s the n-no way he just died th-through the night, right?” he asked, somewhat pleading.

“I’ve never heard of anybody dying throughout the night, they usually die before dinner. Of course, there’s always the chance that the Daniel we were talking to was actually No-.” Khanna was interrupted by the sound of the elevator opening, with Daniel stepping out. The three employees ran up to Daniel, who looked a lot more stressed than usual. “Jesus Christ Daniel, you had us worried for a moment,” Khanna told Daniel off. He walked past her and whinged in passive acknowledgement.

“Dan, are you ok?” Quentin asked, worried for him. He didn’t respond. Quentin noticed that he looked incredibly depressed as he walked past him like he was just going through the motions of life. As Daniel unenthusiastically held a thumbs up to the camera, Khanna was about to speak to Daniel again, but Quentin stopped her. “It’s best if we don’t push any further. Just let him stew for a bit,” he instructed her. She opened her mouth to argue but closed it when she couldn’t think of any better solution. Guess I’ll have to be lonely for today, she thought, as the two other agents went back into the elevator to retire to their assigned department.

“Think it could be an abnormality?” Lilith asked his co-worker, waiting for the elevator to reach their floor.

“Or, it could just be depression, Lily,” he sighed. “He did seem distant from us yesterday.”

“You’ve dealt with behaviour like this before?”

“You deal with a lot of different shit in the city. It just so happened that I made a decent number of friends.”

\---

A clerk stood outside of Schadenfreude’s containment unit, who stopped Quentin before he could walk into the unit.

“Is this your first time working on this abnormality?” they asked. Quentin raised his eyebrows.

“Yeah, why the warning? This thing really dangerous?” he asked in response. The clerk laughed.

“Nah, we’re just here to warn new people on how to handle these kinda abnormalities.” Quentin stayed silent. The clerk eventually got the message to keep talking. “Usually, the Sefirot will just let you deal with abnormalities anyway you want, but certain abnormalities have very special properties, and they want to make sure people know about them, so they don’t die stupidly. All you need to know is to not look at the abnormality, and never look directly at the centre of it.”

“What happens if I do?”

“Just ask anybody who’s been here for a bit about Yumi, then you’ll know.” Quentin shuddered, wondering what may have happened to Yumi, but they couldn’t think about it for now. The clerk stepped out of the way, allowing him to do his work.

Quentin stepped inside the unit. It was a standard cell, so he already knew that whatever was in here wasn’t too picky. He couldn’t see anything in the cell when he entered, but it felt as if though someone was looking directly at him _,_ but it couldn’t be the manager, since there were no cameras in the unit. He slowly turned his head and stopped when he saw the outside of some mechanical box. It had some sort of camera lens, and near the edge of his vision, he saw what looked like a keyhole, but he made sure to not check to find out. That feeling watched became even more intense, and without warning, several thin metal legs sprung from the box, pulling itself up, revealing a fleshy mass under the box. It began skittering towards Quentin, who promptly looked away. He heard the sound of the box landing on the floor again.

Quentin stood there for a minute, considering his next move. He had to perform repression on Schadenfreude, but how could he do that when he couldn’t even face it? He took a deep breath and began walking towards the supply box. This was used on any abnormality that would require tools, though that mainly consisted of mechanical beings. He opened the box and the tools confirmed that Schadenfreude was indeed a machine. He grabbed a screwdriver and a wire cutter and turned around.

The abnormality had moved in the time he wasn’t looking and was now directly in front of the employee, though all that did was save the employee some time looking for it. He clenched his eyes shut before the abnormality could harm him and began walking until he stumbled unto the box, before proceeding to feel around the box blindly for a panel, and lo and behold, there was one. He felt the screws and began unscrewing, making sure that he didn’t drop any so he could place the panel back on it later. These things may have killed plenty of humans, and they may be crimes against nature, but they at least deserved some dignity. _Abnormalities have souls, just like us,_ was all the reasoning he needed to treat them somewhat fairly.

The panel hit the floor with a satisfying clunk, with Schadenfreude trembling slightly. Quentin moved away quickly, letting it calm itself, before he moved on to the next step. He leaned back in and opened his eyes for a second to get an idea of where the wires were. He reached inside the machine, cutting himself in the process, and began feeling the wires. He found the tags and began inspecting them with his fingers. They had lumps on them, signifying what certain wires did, such as the death drive or brain processes.

He snipped the death drive, the wire responsible for desires, and anything that would give the abnormality desires, effectively lobotomising it. It would never be permanent, it never was, but it did give energy and some abnormalities respond well to their… _uniqueness_ being stifled. After enough cutting, he couldn’t find any more tags of wires he had to cut anymore and pulled away from the abnormality, but not before shocking himself on accident. He closed the panel and backed away from the abnormality, careful not to trip on anything. He heard the machine slowly skittering away from the employee. He turned around to face the wall and checked the stress level, which was decreasing at a steady pace. Proud of the work he did, he exited the containment unit after putting away his tools.

“Did it go well?” the clerk asked him on his way out.

“Yep!” he replied.

\---

“Just keep looking at it and you’ll be fine,” the clerk explained.

“What about blinking?” Lilith asked.

“Blinking is fine, it just wants to make sure it has your attention. If it doesn’t, it’ll do everything in its power to regain your attention.” The clerk stepped out of the way to let Lilith into the Burrowing Heaven’s unit, who did so. This wouldn’t be her first WAW abnormality, but at least with the others, you could have some freedom in working.

She saw the abnormality in all of its glory. It looked like a dead tree, but instead of wood, it was made of what looked more like nerves, with yellow eyes planted all around it. One big eye in the centre of the abnormality looked at her, piercing her with its red pupil. All was silent, except for the sound of a whirring security camera. Lilith wondered if the warning applied to the manager as well. She began her attachment work with the abnormality.

“Can you speak?” No response. _Of course not._

“Can you understand me?” This time, the abnormality shook its branch/wings a bit. Lilith felt as if though she knew what that meant, but just to be sure…

“Was that a yes?” Another shake. Lilith felt relieved that this thing had some level of intelligence but wasn’t sure if that made more dangerous or not. She noticed branches slowly growing on the outskirts of her vision and turned towards them, worried that they would strike soon. When they moved with her gaze, she realised her mistake. The branches suddenly grew faster than should be possible towards the centre of her vision, piercing something inside her. Her head screamed in pain, but she toughed it out to look back at the abnormality, the branches retracting as she did.

“Do not deny what is in front of you. Is this not what you wanted to see?” a voice that did not belong to her said in her head.

“You can talk?”

“The process is painful, but this is the first step to reaching heaven.” The eyes suddenly looked elsewhere, to the sound of the whirring. Lilith didn’t make the same mistake of looking where the abnormality wasn’t, but she already knew what the abnormality was thinking. Would it be able to attack the manager? She didn’t think about that for too long, since the branches quickly stuck her again, causing her to scream in pain. She cursed the manager, mad that she was suffering for their mistakes. The camera whirred again, and The Burrowing Heaven looked at the employee again.

“W-what do you want?” she asked, wanting to make sure she didn’t anger the thing again. She felt like she was about to go insane, her mind almost broken. The answer rang out in her head, with one simple word.

“Attention.”

Lilith never liked staring contests, mainly because she would always lose them, so the relief she felt knowing she was allowed to blink was immeasurable. Still, that didn’t make things much easier. She thought she could just stare at the abnormality for the work, but like all angels, The Burrowing Heaven tested her devotion. A loud clang came from the side of the room, like something had fallen. She knew better though. Their eyes didn’t break contact. The branches began moving again, still, Lilith remained steadfast, knowing that if they were to strike, she wouldn’t be able to anything about it.

“Good.” Someone began slamming on the door, trying to get Lilith’s attention. _When will this damned thing let up?_ She thought that would be all there is to it, until the person slamming the door began speaking.

“Lilith! Lilith! Please, help me! Please!” she heard Quentin yell. She flinched, wondering if it really was Quentin. She began to sweat nervously.

“Lilith… please.” Lilith realised that it was just another ordeal since she’d never heard Quentin call her by her real name. She smirked a bit, taunting the abnormality in front of her.

The door opened.

Or, at least, she heard it open. The abnormality wasn’t actually able to cause physical sensation during ordeals, only attacking people when they didn’t pay attention to it, so she knew she had nothing to worry about. Still, when she heard that familiar clockwork tick, she stiffened. It was heavy, meaning it was the bulkier robots, The Process of Understanding if she remembered correctly, from the green noon ordeals.

She was reminded of her second day at the corporation, and how a pack of them shredded employees to pieces, and the gruesome scene of her friend who faced them, laying on the floor halfway through death’s doorway. She remembered that not only her old suit, but her new coat as well was weak to physical attacks, and if she was caught by the saws on them her body would be ripped to shred and she w-

_No. I’m better than that._ She stood still, looking intently at the abnormality. The steps became louder and louder, slowly approaching her. She heard the sound of it raising one of its arms and turning on its saw. If it was real, then she’d be ripped to shreds if she didn’t look or die when she took her eyes of The Burrowing Heaven. If it wasn’t, then her best bet was to look forward. She braced, leaving her eyes open. She grit her teeth, hard, threatening to break the safety match placed in her mouth. But nothing came. She sighed in relief.

“Outstanding,” the voice said. “You’re worthy for heaven.” Lilith began panicking, anticipating an attack, but instead, some branches from the abnormality began forming a crown of sorts. It extended its arm towards her head and dropped the crown on her head.

“You may leave now.” She didn’t need to be told twice and opened the door whilst looking at The Burrowing Heaven, before leaving. The branches in her vision began receding until they were completely gone, signifying that she was safe.

“Nice crown,” the clerk commented. She took the crown off her head to inspect it. It was made of the same material as The Burrowing Heaven with several eyes similar to the abnormality’s placed on it. It wasn’t uncomfortable to have on, but the tips did look very sharp, so she made a mental note to never touch them and to use more headbutts in battle. She smiled. She was definitely going to show it off, but first, she had to get back to her floor.

\---

Pizza makes everything better, unless you hated pizza. On Fridays, the cafeteria served pizza for dinner, which always made Fridays arguably the best workday by majority consensus. Technically, weekends were also workdays, but they only had to work for half the day, with the rest of the day being optional. This made the discussion the employees made about their day more joyous.

“You think it was on purpose?” Quentin asked his friend.

“Hmm?” Lilith responded, mouth full of pizza.

“We were assigned to abnormalities that were basically opposites around the same time.” Lilith quickly gulped down her pizza to respond.

“Coincident happen, besides, it’s not like we’re opposites,” she retorted.

“I don’t know Lilith, I heard the manager really values their aesthetic,” Khanna commented. “The entirety of Central Command is filled with abnormalities that have something complimentary to it on the other floor. Plus, I heard that all of the Alephs were placed in a single department with no other risk level, except for that one Zayin.”

“What’s an Aleph like?” Quentin asked, having heard that name quite a couple of times but never actually saw one. Khanna pointed to another table, which was filled with several employees with clothes that gave off an impressive aura. He even recognised two of the agents as the ones who saved him from his second day. It was the Aleph squad.

“Their armour is the best in the entire facility and a representation of Alephs. You see that dude over there with (CENSORED) on him?” He did see them, and he really didn’t want to. His face was covered in (CENSORED), his clothes seemed to be made of (CENSORED), and even his arm appeared to be (CENSORED). It was almost enough to make him lose his appetite. Almost. “That associated abnormality isn’t even considered the most dangerous one here.” Now Quentin was nervous, yet also curious.

“Can’t wait ‘till we have to face them,” Quentin said.

“I agree. I can’t say I’m excited to see what they are, but I am curious to what they might be,” Lilith commented. “Plus, that gear really co-“

“What does it matter!?” Daniel shouted, slamming his hand unto the table. The three agents, and a few close-by employees, were startled by the outburst, mainly since he hadn’t said anything since they started eating. In fact, he hadn’t even touched his slice yet. “They kill us, and we have to take care of them, isn’t that so unfair?” he continued.

“Dan…” Quentin calmly said, worried about his friend.

“There’s no joy to be found here anymore, we’re all going to die here and there’s nothing we can do about it.”

“It’s better than dying off in the Backalley, though,” Khanna mumbled. Daniel stared at her in disgust.

“Fuck you.” He stood from the table and left for his room, leaving his friends in confusion. Khanna clenched her jaw.

“What’s his problem?” she said, baring her anger for all to see.

“Depression won’t be solved in a day, Khanna,” Lilith explained. This infuriated Khanna even more.

“Well if he doesn’t sort himself out soon, he’s gonna get us all killed!”

“Khanna, calm down.” Quentin cringed when he heard those words.

“No, I’m not going to calm down. He’s right, we could die at any moment, so I’m sorry if I’m worried about all our safety.” Khanna picked up her slice of pizza and left as well, taking bites out of it. Quentin and Lilith stared at each other, dumbfounded by the events that just played out.

“Something’s wrong,” Quentin noted.

“I know,” She replied. “I’ll try to find out if this type of thing is something common in the facility.” She took another bite of the pizza.

“Alright, we just gotta solve this fast.” He reached for Daniel’s uneaten pizza.

“Don’t even think about not splitting it with me.”


	8. Face the Fear 3.2: Bird Nests

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Quentin and Lilith talk whilst feeding the forbidden worms, then Quentin is judged by a bird.

Saturday rolled around, and there was still no morning meme from Daniel. Quentin was worried, but he knew that Daniel wouldn’t be happy this fast. He stretched as he rose from the bed and let out a mighty yawn. He went through his morning routine again, brushing his teeth, getting some exercise, and putting on his gear. Whilst his sword was still the same, his original armour was now replaced with what appeared to be an overcoat made from various pieces of colourful leather, with a colour scheme of Christmas, with Christmas lights on one of the sleeves. It was appropriately named “Christmas.”

He quickly checked the stats and was disappointed to learn that it had almost worst stats than his previous gear. It had very good White damage resistance and a decent Red resistance, but it didn’t do much to stop Black damage. Interestingly, its Pale resistance was slightly better than his old armour, but it was still weak to it. Not a very good trade-off, he complained to himself, but it wasn’t like he could go to work in his casual gear, even if it was a weekend, or he might get terminated from his job, and he already knew what that meant. Still, it was HE grade, so maybe Pale damage was more important than he thought.

He slipped on the suit and it was… surprisingly comfortable. He wasn’t sure if the sudden urge to give gifts to people was just himself getting into the spirit, or if that was an effect of the Ego gear. He went for his pantry and got out the waffles, indulging in them for the weekend. A knock interrupted his preparation. Who could be at his door? He opened his door and questioned why he was so surprised to see Lilith standing there, her arms crossed. She already had her uniform on as well, her ice blue coat complimenting her pale features.

“Oh, u-um, ahem, hey Lily, what’s happening?” he asked.

“I think I’ve figured it out. Mind if I come inside for a bit?” she said, surprising Quentin again.

“Sure. I’m making waffles, you want any.” He opened the door some more and stepped out of the way, letting her step through.

“That sounds nice. If it’s not too much trouble for you.” Quentin smiled a bit, proud that he was giving something to his friend.

…

Quentin placed the two hot plates of waffles on the table along with a variety of toppings. He was nervously drumming his fingers on his plate. He was nervous because Lilith was in his room. He hadn’t had people visit him in his apartment in so long, this being the first in quite a while. He grabbed a banana and began slicing it, placing it on his waffles.

“You want some?” he asked, offering the other half of the banana.

“No thank you,” she replied. Quentin shrugged and began eating the rest. “Now, first things first,” she continued. “What the hell are you wearing.” Quentin looked at his clothes. He’d admit, it did look incredibly tacky, but beggars couldn’t be choosers.

“What, you jealous?” he said with an air of humour. Lilith chuckled.

“Sure, whatever you say. Now, onto the elephant in the room.” Quentin listened closely. “I’ve figured out what’s been happening to Daniel and Khanna.”

“Khanna as well? I thought that was just a one-off thing.” Lilith shook her head.

“That’s what I thought too, but I checked on her last night and today, she’s been extremely irritable.”

“Maybe it’s that time of the month?” Lilith glared at him.

"Sorry, I'm not too well informed on these sort of stuff," he claimed.

“Well anyway, asked her about that, she said it wasn’t and that I didn’t understand her at all. Besides, even if it was, Daniel would still be in question.” He sighed.

“Aight, tell me what’s happening,” he finally asked.

“You do know that they’re now level 4 employees now, right?” Quentin nodded. He was still so surprised that they were already so experienced, and hoped that one day, he would reach their skill level. “Well as it turns out, there’s a well-known phenomenon in Lobotomy Corporation where at around level 4, most employees become unstable due to their experiences with the facility and become highly negative.” Quentin was baffled at her explanation.

“Why level 4? What’s so special about that?”

“I’m making assumptions, but I think it’s because that’s the point where they learn the most about the company and how unfair life is. It’s also known that practically all level 5 employees are employees who know about this information but have come to terms to it.”

“So they’ll be back to normal when they reach level 5?”

“It would be earlier. People think that this phenomenon is a filter, and if you don’t resolve that roadblock, you’ll never reach level 5.”

“Do you think we-“

“Certainty. Hopefully not at the same time, but we’re most likely going to have to go through what they have.” Quentin’s lips thinned, concerned about their future.

“You seem very interested in this whole thing,” he commented.

“Of course. Their performance will be affected by their attitude and, don’t tell this to her or else I will hunt you down, I’m not ready for Khanna to leave me again,” she said, not letting any emotion show on her face. He nodded. He’d have to find out how to help his two other friends just so they don’t die, but right now, there wasn’t anything more to discuss on this matter. The two agents ate their waffles and had some more conversation. It was pleasant, for both of them.

\---

Quentin stabbed another piece of unidentified meat from the plate and held it to the nest. A brown worm-like creature with a rocky body popped out one of the nest’s hole and happily snatched the meat in its mouth before chewing it down. Quentin watched the worm eat it as he sat on the floor, getting another piece of as the worm went back into its nest. The instinct work was surprisingly calm, considering that he knew that if there was the chance of one of the worms entering him and turning him into a nest if he wasn’t careful.

Quentin heard the door to the containment unit open, causing him to turn around. One of the worms bit him in the finger, sinking its fangs deep into it. Quentin winced when it did but didn’t pull away since he knew he’d rip his fingers off. It eventually let go and bit down correctly on the piece of meat. Quentin turned again to look at who entered.

“Hey Lily.”

“Hey Quentin.” She sat down next to Quentin, watching as he fed the worms. “What’s the name of this abnormality again?” she asked him.

“The Naked Nest, aka my first WAW abnormality worked on. Weird name, right?”

“Heh, yeah.” She looked at the sleek sphere that made up the nest contemplatively. “Did you ever live in a Nest?” she asked the employee.

“Nah, I’ve lived in the backstreets my whole life. I’m not sure if anybody here lived in a Nest before, otherwise, they’d have no reason to take up this job.”

“I guess that makes sense.”

“I’m actually sending my family some of my pay, to help them move to a Nest.”

“You’re on good terms with your family?” He cringed a bit.

“Not really. I was kind of the overlooked child, but I just think it’s only fair. After all, it’s not like I’m using all of the money for my lifestyle.” Lilith nodded in understanding. “What about you?” he asked.

“I haven’t heard from my parents in quite a while, so I’m saving my money until I find out what to use it for. I’ve tried to find out if they’re still alive, but I’m not optimistic,” she explained.

“Oh… I’m sorry.”

“Save it, I’m not too worried about it, so you shouldn’t be either,” she told him. Some more moments passed, the squelching sound of the worms chewing on their meal being the only thing that could be heard. “Do you think it’s true what they say about the Nests?” she asked.

“Hmm?”

“The rumours. About what they say a Nest is like.” He laughed a bit, before hissing a bit as another worm bit him. I’m going to turn this instinct work into repression if these worms don’t let up.

“Well, they probably don’t have parties every day, but yeah, I’m pretty sure it’s much better than what we deal with in the Backstreets. Not gonna lie, I bet they do think we’re just a bunch of savages though.”

“If you think that’s true, why are you trying to help your family get into a Nest?”

“I just said, it’s much better than the Backstreets. I’m never going to be able to go to a Nest now, but at least my family can.” The plate of meat was finished, as was his work. He placed the fork on the plate and picked himself up, with Lilith following suit. He dumped the plate into the disposal box and walked outside of the room with her. “So, do you mind explaining why you’re suddenly talking to me a lot?” he asked her. She shrugged.

“Boredom, mostly.”

“Aw, you sure you’re not worried about me?” he joked. Before she could even come up with a response, the sound of a gun firing rang through the air. Blood splashed on the floor as Lilith clutched her torso. A few more clicks were heard, followed by the sound of a magazine hitting the floor. Quentin turned to the hostile and saw an agent with some bright red body armour and a white pistol, with what appeared to be blood splattered on it.

“I don’t want to die alone… I won’t die alone,” they kept muttering. They attempted to reload but couldn’t see anything from the tears in their eyes and missed their target. Quentin unsheathed his sword halfway but was stopped when Lilith held an arm up in front of him.

“Don’t. You’ll kill him. Just take the hits for me so I can get close,” she ordered. He nodded and stepped in front of her and began running towards the panicking employee. The employee finally reloaded and began firing at the charging agent. The shots hurt, but his suit took most of the damage. As he got in front of the panicking employee, they attempted to strike Quentin by slamming the butt of their gun into his head, to which Quentin responded by grabbing his arm and throwing it to the side, making them drop their weapon.

Lilith then swiftly slid to the side of Quentin and stabbed her spear into the panicking employee, going straight through the employee. The employee grabbed their head and began turning tail. They tried their best to run, but their movements were stiff, and they were shivering like they were about to freeze to death.

“Please… please don’t… mom? Dad?” they barely said. Lilith quickly caught up with the employee and began stabbing the employee repeatedly. The panicking agent weakly attempted to stop the attacks, until they stopped, looking like they had just woken up from a bad dream. “W-where am I?” the employee said, looking around the department with a confused look.

The main room’s elevators opened up, and a couple of agents ran out of the elevators with their weapons drawn. Upon seeing the previously panicking employee, they sighed.

“Never mind fellas, it’s already done, let’s go,” one of them said, leading the agents back into the elevator, some waving to Lilith and Quentin. After thank-yous were given by the saved agent, they went about their way to whatever department they were assigned to, which turned out to be the Central Control department, to the two agents surprise.

“Are you alright?” Quentin asked his friend. She checked her wound.

“Nasty and painful, but I’ll live. I should ask that to you, you took most of the shots for me. Thanks for that by the way,” she responded.

“No problem. Same as you, I’ll live. This suit is tougher than it looks.” He flaunted his coat as he said that, flashing a big grin.

Quentin and Lilith found a seat and relaxed, Lilith sipping on a soda whilst Quentin inspected his wounds. It was when he began poking the wounds and hissing in pain in response when Lilith decided to intervene.

“You’ve just sustained bullet wounds, and you think the best course of action is to dig your fingers in them?” she asked, annoyed.

“Sorry, it’s still a bit surreal for me seeing these on my own body. I’ve never had to deal with this sort of stuff in the Backstreets, though I may have just been lucky,” he explained. She shrugged.

“That’s fair. Hopefully, that’s the worst we have to suffer for today.” An announcement went out throughout the facility, telling everyone that it was now noon. Demented circus music quickly followed, with tiny, malevolent, laughter accompanying it. She took another sip from her soda. “I’m not optimistic though.”

\---

Quentin was trembling. He thought that he’d be better than this now that he had time to get used to Lobotomy Corporation, but there was, and always will be, some sort of anxiousness that plagued him whenever he had to work on a new abnormality. But this was different. It was a WAW class, which didn’t worry him too much since this wouldn’t be the first WAW abnormality he’d work on. What did worry him was how the abnormality would hurt him.

Chances are, neither of us need another lesson on what different damages there are, but just in case (and for dramatic purposes), we’ll go over them again. RED is physical damage, what you and I feel the most in everyday life. WHITE is mental damage, what you feel when someone sends you an incredibly cursed image. BLACK is a combination of physical and mental damage, the best connection I can make would be if you got brain damage from an injury. PALE is when something damages your very soul, destroying your essence. It’s also the rarest type of damage, which makes sense since it’s also the deadliest and the hardest to defend against with normal gear.

So wasn’t it a bit too early to send him to work on a Pale damage abnormality?

Quentin already knew about the “Something Birds” in the facility, such as Punishing Bird, which Quentin had worked on and had bad memories of, Big Bird, which Lilith had recently worked on and did confirm was not from Sesame Street, and now the final bird’s containment stood before Quentin, Judgement Bird. Whilst the same class as Big Bird, this was one of the few abnormalities that could deal Pale damage. He was told not to worry too much about it, and to just complete his Insight work to the best of his ability.

“If you die, you die.” He wanted to sock the guy who said that to him in the face when they first said that, but they had a point. If he tried to run away from this, he’d surely die, so working was his best chance at survival. Seems a bit fucked, but ok. He stopped his procrastination and entered his ID into the keypad, the door opening after he managed to stop his trembling hand.

The first thing he noticed when he opened the containment door was the feeling of all of his sins crawling on his back, as if he’d just come across some skeleton after murdering several people. That and the massive bird staring at him. Or, at least it would be if its face wasn’t covered with bandages. It had long, spindly legs supporting its round body, covered in black fluffy feathers. Quentin wondered how it would feel if he hugged the bird, but he still valued his life, so he left that question unanswered, for now at least.

Its arms were long, like the rest of its limbs, also covered in the feathers and its neck was crooked. It the bend hung a balance, with one side noticeably heavier than the other, causing it to tilt to one side. Its was pill-shaped, all of its features hidden by its tattered bandages, with the only noticeable feature besides the bandages were the two small white wings on the side of its head.

The Bird began approaching the agent, its small feet tapping against the hard ground. Quentin grabbed his sword, ready to strike the abnormality should it become hostile. Seeing this, Judgement Bird stopped. Still, it was close enough to Quentin for him to see how long the bird was, towering over the employee.

“Why are you afraid? There is nothing to worry about if you are free of sin,” it said in a soothing voice. Quentin wasn’t surprised at its ability to speak, but it still unnerved him since he had no idea if it even had a beak.

“I-I’m just here for Insight work, there’s no need to be aggressive,” he told the abnormality.

“I’m not, simply curious. You may continue with your work, but first I must judge you. Do not resist, for my judgment is pure and just.” It reached over to its balance and held it out. Quentin was ready to jump out of the way if it tried anything. The balance began to sway to and fro, until tilting to the heavier side. As it did, Quentin clutched his chest in pain. No, not pain. It was something else. It was as if he was being hollowed out. He could feel a part of his soul leave his body and it wasn’t pleasant.

“Ah, guilty. I hope you one day find your redemption.” Quentin wanted to tell the abnormality the scale wouldn’t show any other outcome, but he was too busy trying to regain his composure. “But please, continue your work. The agent complied, going over to the equipment box in the unit. He opened the Insight box and grabbed the cleaning supplies. Luckily, the abnormality was surprisingly clean. The most he had to clean from the unit were the feathers shed from the abnormality moulting.

His next task was simple, readjusting the temperature. To Quentin, the room did feel a bit chilly, so he accessed the thermostat. When he noticed Judgement Bird’s stress level rise from the increase in temperature, it was too late. He turned back to the abnormality raising its balance. At least this time he’d know what to expect, but it still struck him with despair knowing that he had no way to dodge it. The balance tilted and the pain stuck Quentin again. This time, it was much number. He reasoned that he was close to halfway dead, and he’d have to be more careful from here on out. At the very least, if he did die because of this, he’d feel no pain. _Hopefully._

“Don’t try that again, sinner,” Quentin didn’t bother correcting his name, “if you attempt to take my life again, I shall not be so merciful.” He wondered if the abnormality was bluffing, but even so, he didn’t want to face another judgement. He lowered the temperature until Judgement Bird’s stress level was at an acceptable level. It was cold for Quentin, but he wasn’t the one that had feathers to warm him up. “Do you believe this place is free of sin?” he heard the bird ask him.

“Definitely not. How bright do you want the room?” he both asked and answered him.

“Darker than it currently is. It reminds me of my previous home,” Judgement Bird responded, reminiscent. “If you do not believe this place is pure of sin, then wouldn’t you agree that it would be better if it was purified?” it continued. Quentin pondered his next moves. If he answered incorrectly, he might anger the bird.

“Yes, I guess, bu-“

“Then let me out. I shall cleanse this company’s sins.” It was extremely forward and almost caught Quentin off guard.

“You know I can’t do that.”

“But why?” It was starting to sound more annoyed. He clenched his teeth as he thought about his next words.

“They’re not ready for your judgement. If you try to give judgement, they’ll try to stop you. You’re powerful, but only one bird. They’ll kill you if you go out there by your own.” The bird looked down.

“Then, what you’re saying is that I must rally my comrades in order to bring peace to this place?” Quentin felt a bead of sweat form on his brow. “Then I shall wait here until the time arrives. Mayhaps you may even witness us when that time arrives.” He relaxed upon hearing those words. It wouldn’t last forever, but at the very least, it meant that it wouldn’t try to escape right now.

“But I do wonder one thing. Are you only saying this out of fear?” Quentin mentally panicked and struggled on whether to defend himself or not, choosing to stay quiet for a bit longer. “I must decide if your intentions are pure.” _Ah fuck._ He already knew what was coming.

He closed his eyes as the abnormality reached for its neck once again. He heard the balance tip again and the familiar, yet still uncomfortable, pain return once more. This time, he barely reacted. He couldn’t react. He opened his eyes. He tried to feel anything and was relieved that he could still feel some sensation, but it was the worrying lack of emotions he could feel that worried him. He wondered if the auto-regenerators in the facility could heal even this type of wound.

The long bird inspected its scales and its judgment. “Not the most desirable result, but I can safely say that what you say does have good meaning in mind.” Quentin would’ve sighed at this, but he didn’t even feel stressed. “Now, I believe your time here is over. Until we meet again.” Quentin recognised that this was just a polite way to tell him to go kick rocks, but he wasn’t complaining. With stiff movement, he opened the door again and left.

He sat down and attempted to try and smile again, and with time, he managed to get back to normal. _Even these pains can be healed. What kind of place is this?_ He stared at a nearby camera, which was also staring back at him, a sign that he registered that he was about to be assigned another work. He had been sitting there for a while. When he saw his work, he was relieved that it was back to another HE abnormality, so he didn’t need to fear for his life this time around. _Hopefully I don’t have to deal with anything like that for now._

\---

The manager assigned him to Judgement Bird at least 5 times that day.


	9. Face the Fear 3.3: Judgement

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Haha funny clown goes nyoom.

*Ding*

“Hmm?” Quentin murmured. He rolled over in his bed and checked his tablet. It was still early in the day, so he had time to loaf around a bit in bed. Plus, it was still a Sunday, so he felt that he could be a little more lax than usual. He checked the notification his tablet gave.

Lilith has sent a group chat invite.

Now he was awake. He clicked the accept button and he was brought to the group chat that Lilith had created.

 **Quentin:** What’s happening?  
**Lily Pad:** hey quentin  
**Quentin:** Lily?  
**Lily Pad:** yep  
**Quentin:** Nice name  
**Quentin:** Wait hold up

 **Quentin** has changed their nickname to **Qliphoth Fucker**

 **Lily Pad:** really?  
**Qliphoth Fucker:** :)  
**Lily Pad:** anyways, i made this group chat so it’d be easier to talk to each other  
**Lily Pad:** i would try to send an invite to daniel and khanna, but this doesn’t appear to be the best time  
**Qliphoth Fucker:** True  
**Qliphoth Fucker:** Speaking of them, should we confront them?  
**Lily Pad:** i’d say to leave it for tomorrow, let them enjoy their weekend for a bit  
**Qliphoth Fucker:** Aight  
**Lily Pad:** on another note, you had to work on judgement bird yesterday right?  
**Qliphoth Fucker:** Yep  
**Lily Pad:** how does pale damage feel  
**Qliphoth Fucker:** Hard to explain? You kind of have to experience it and I’d rather not think about it  
**Lily Pad:** then i give you full permission to stab me with your katana  
**Lily Pad:** for research purposes of course  
**Qliphoth Fucker:** :|  
**Qliphoth Fucker:** Well, I’m gonna get ready for the day. Cya  
**Lily Pad:** bye

Quentin shut off his tablet as he shuffled out of bed. Another day, another routine. When he finished changing into his clothes, he decided to inspect himself in the mirror. As he thought about his appearance a little deeper, he realised just how alien of a concept it would’ve been to him in the past of him wearing clothes even close to this.

He’d never seen a suit like the one he was wearing before his employment to Lobotomy Corporation, and he’d never even wielded a weapon larger than a knife on him, let alone a katana that could destroy someone’s soul. His weapon and suit clashed in aesthetics, something that ticked Quentin off, but were overall effective in protecting him.

What would’ve been even weirder to him would be his gifts. He had a low number of gifts when compared to other similarly levelled employees, but he had enough for it to be noticeable. On his head laid his crown of thorns, which he decided that he would try to keep for as long as possible. His suit had a radio clipped to it, playing quiet music to serve as background music for him. He also had a necklace that had a tiny dagger attached to it, given to him by the Punishing Bird one day when he was working. The dagger could barely hurt anyone, just like the bird with its beak. It was no wonder it must use its second mouth for true punishment.

The EGO gifts were obviously removable, he’d do it whenever they would get in the way, but he’d never feel the need to remove them during the workday. Not only were they allowed, they were also desired. Quentin felt a bit disappointed at his lack of gifts, and he believed that it was long overdue for a new one. Unfortunately, abnormalities giving gifts was largely random and depended on how they felt at that moment.

It was obvious that the gifts actually changed the bearer, but to Quentin, it was still a mystery on how it works. He was told that it was imprinting a part of the abnormality’s ego unto the wearer, but did that also include personality? If so, how much of his personality was actually his? If he got enough gifts, would that also practically make him an abnormality?

_If it does, then I have to get more quickly._

\---

Turns out, Lilith was completely serious. Quentin was very uncomfortable stabbing a close friend, but she assured him that she would be fine, so long as he didn’t go too wild. After doing the awkward motion of slowly sliding the blade into her torso, and some weird looks that were thrown to them by passing clerks or agents, he removed the blade. Her face was contorted into a wince, not from pain but from mild discomfort.

“Let’s not try that again any time soon,” she said. Quentin fully agreed. “Thanks, Quentin, sorry for the odd request.”

“No problem. Just, make sure to take care of yourself. You know this is dangerous,” he warned her. The two went their way to their department. This day, they were working at different levels of the department, so after they bid each other farewell, they arrived at Central Command. It saddened Quentin that his friend would be on a different floor than him, but he could always text her.

Quentin saw Daniel pass by him, nearly bumping into him. He still looked quite gloomy, but he looked a lot better than before.

“Hey! Daniel,” Quentin shouted to his friend. Daniel turned around, surprising Quentin that he heard him even through his big headphones he always seemed to have on. Quentin didn’t expect him to actually turn around, so he simply gave a small wave to him, which he returned with a lot less enthusiasm. Still, it was progress, and it was enough progress to bring a smile to Quentin’s face. Daniel turned around and began walking away. _Things are looking up._

Quentin’s tablet dinged, notifying him of a new work order. He groaned when he saw the work order. He wondered why the manager wanted him to work on Judgement Bird so much.

\---

Lilith stepped through the unit door. The entire room was covered in foliage, with vines climbing the walls and leaves covering everywhere she would and could step. _Thank god I don’t have to clean this,_ she thought to herself. A large tree stood at the centre of the room, with abnormally large leaves instead of branches and had a soothing green colour to it. It was a nice sight that didn’t match the rest of the facility. A gentle breeze went through the unit, something that couldn’t possibly originate within any containment unit.

She stepped towards the tree, looking closer at it. Its trunk was very large, and Lilith could see a face embedded within it. Its eyes were closed and seemed to be resting, its similarities with a sleeping baby unmissable. It also gave off a pleasant aroma, like she was strolling through a field of flowers. _This thing’s trying really hard,_ she noted. _Oh well, at least it’s refreshing._

“Hello, have you come to receive my blessing?” a voice echoed in Lilith’s head. The tree didn’t move, but she could tell it was the abnormality talking. It was calm and soothing, like the rest of the abnormality.

“No, I’m just here to perform attachment,” she responded.

“But I can fell your tension. Ease yourself, the blessing will help you.” She was in no position to argue. She had a job to do, and from what she’s heard, the blessing was actually helpful, so long as not too many people are blessed in the day.

The tree began rustling as a green mist began filling the room. It was pleasant to breathe in and didn’t impede her breathing. After a while, it stopped rustling and Lilith felt more rejuvenated than any good night’s rest could possibly give. It felt good. A bright bulb began emerging from the tree.

“Well? Do you not feel more invigorated?” the voice said again.

“What are you trying to accomplish,” she fired back, ignoring the question. Whilst it did help her, she knew that no abnormality was purely altruistic.

“I simply wish to help. Is that so wrong? I can help your friends, just like I helped you. Do you not want that?” She wouldn’t fall for that so easily. It was trying to activate its curse, and it needed more bulbs to do that. It only had one so far, so it was safe. Well, maybe she could bring in Khanna or Daniel. It may help soothe their mind and get them back to normal. Quentin too, it’d be unfair if he was left out. They all could use the bles-

 _Huh._ She shook those thoughts from her head. It wasn’t the correct way of thinking and was the doing of the abnormality. There were a plethora of reasons why she shouldn’t bring her friends into the unit, but the abnormality’s name was enough of a reason.

_The Parasite Tree._

“Don’t try to persuade me,” she told the tree.

“That is your decision.” The smell of roses began to annoy Lilith.

\---

Quentin was busy shining some heels. They weren’t just any shoes. They were an abnormality and were a sanguine red in colour, and as such, they were name “Red Shoes”. A tad uncreative, but at least it was honest. He wiped the shoes passionately with a cloth until he could see his own reflection on them and then placed the shoes back unto their worn cushion that they constantly rested on.

The shoes were beautiful in every way, which caused Quentin’s mood to lower knowing that he wasn’t wearing them. He wondered what he would look like in the shoes, but that was probably a bad idea. He wasn’t sure what was the bigger reason. Perhaps it was the explicit orders given to him to not wear them, or maybe it was the bloodied axe that laid next to the pedestal where the shoes laid. Or maybe it was the mass array of teeth that Quentin would occasionally see inside the shoes. Perhaps we’ll never know.

An announcement went out throughout the facility, announcing that it was now Dusk. _Already?_ Usually, the workday would end around noon on the weekends, but after some weird music played throughout the facility that hurt his head (and made another one's explode), the manager quickly announced that there would be overwork that day and that they’d be compensated.

Quentin was fine with this since he usually didn’t do much when work was over. He was still a bit afraid of the abnormalities that roamed freely when the day ended, even though he knew that they would be harmless so long as he was as well. This did mean that he’d face the dusk ordeal, something that he really wished he wouldn’t have to.

Demented carnival music began playing. _Looks like it’s a Crimson Dusk._ It was funny to Quentin, considering the crimson shoes that he’d subconsciously picked up. He quickly placed the shoes back before he did anything he’d regret and quickly left the unit. When he arrived at the main room, he noticed the absence of most of the employees. _Probably fighting the ordeal._

**The Struggle at the Climax**

Throwing away our old bodies, we all become one, infinitely continuing the red march.

He waited for his suppression order to arrive, but it never did. He was getting anxious. The P.A. speakers crackled to life again.

“The Disciplinary Department is being slaughtered. We need backup!” he heard the rough voice of the Disciplinary Department’s sephirah. That was one of the neighbouring departments of Central Command, meaning the ordeal would be close by. Quentin couldn’t wait around any more and began walking towards the disciplinary department. When he arrived at the hallways, the door at the other end of the hallway opened up. A large amalgamation of sewn together flesh hobbled through the door. It had long arms with spears and hammers attached to them and through the large opening that Quentin assumed to be its mouth, a large appendix emerged with a clown’s head attached to the end.

Quentin’s body froe when he saw the clown. The clown, however, did not do the same. Upon spotting the lone agent, the ordeal lowered its weapons and began rolling quickly towards him. While it didn’t look particularly fatal to be crushed by the amalgamation, he wasn’t willing to test that theory. Quentin mildly panicked and quickly inputted his credentials into a nearby containment unit. As the door opened, he threw himself inside to avoid the large mound of flesh rolling through the hallway at alarming speeds. The door closed, and the sound of flesh squelching and metal tools clanging got louder, until it passed the door and moved on. Quentin sighed. He could leave the unit and continue to hunt down the ordeal, but he felt as if he should at least apologize to whatever abnormality was within the unit for the sudden intrusion. He turned his head.

 _Oh._ “Hello,” he said meekly.

A head covered in bandages looked over him. Judgement Bird was alarmingly close to the employee, but that didn’t matter, since it never attacked via physical means. “What are you doing here?” it asked, its voices echoing through the empty room.

“Hiding. There was an ordeal outside,” he explained, out of breath. The bird looked at him. Even though it had no eyes, Quentin could tell it was glaring at him.

“Then should you not be attempting to suppress the ordeal?”

“Yeah, but I’m not sure if I can handle it.”

“Then allow me. Open that door, and I shall help you and the facility.” _This bird’s very set on escaping._ The sound of shouting and many footsteps went past the door, no doubt attempting to stop the crimson ordeal.

“Like I’ve said before, I can’t do that.”

“Then we’re at an impasse.” Quentin was confused by the abnormality’s wording. “We both agree that the monster outside should be defeated, but you believe you are too weak to face it, and I am not able to go outside. Perhaps a compromise must be in order.”

“What?”

“I shall give you my gift. This shall help you see beyond your eyes. But first, I must see whether your intentions are pure at heart.” Quentin barely understood. Did it mean it’s E.G.O gift? And if the scale only tipped one way, how would he be pure? It didn’t matter, the bird already had its balance outheld. Quentin closed his eyes. The pain he felt was unbearable. It felt like he was being ripped to shreds without even being touched. He collapsed to his knees, wanting to scream but no noise coming out of his mouth. And just as suddenly as it came, it stopped.

“Innocent. It’s been a while,” the bird quietly said. The agent opened his eyes. His vision was… new. Even though he could still see somewhat normally, he could also see more. He saw the bird, and he saw the soul. He slowly stood up and felt his face. There was something covering his eyes, and they felt like bandages, just like the bird. “Now go. I shall guide you as you give your righteous judgement.” Quentin gripped his sword with newfound resolve and quickly opened the door, dashing through. The bird watched as he left the unit, once again being all alone in its home.

\---

The amalgamation swung its large hammer again, Lilith quickly dodging it. A more unfortunate agent took the force of the blow, slamming into a wall. She quickly dove back in to drive her spear into the amalgamation. After several more blows by her and other employees, they backed away from the ordeal as it began attacking again. _This is starting to get repetitive._ It was a routine of attacking the ordeal, then backing off, then attacking it again when it stopped attacking. She looked around, looking for a way to silently slip away from the battle. She spotted Quentin rushing towards the battle.

“Hey, Quentin!” she shouted, waving to him. A spear stabbed her, scraping her side. She hissed in pain and took some more steps away from the ordeal, clutching her side. It wasn’t bad, but her suit made her flesh more fragile, making it easier to tear. Quentin reached her and attempted to make sure she didn’t collapse.

“Are you alright?” he asked.

“Yeah, I’ll be fine,” she answered with strain. “Where were you?”

“Sorry, I didn’t realise the clown was that fast.” When he saw the clown, it was at the bottom floor of Central Command, near the Disciplinary department, so he had no idea how it managed to get all the way to the Information department. A loud squelching noise could be heard. Quentin and Lilith turned their heads toward the ordeal. The amalgamation’s stitches began to tear, no longer able to contain itself. It split open, blood spilling everywhere, and from the remains emerged another being.

Unlike its previous form, this new ordeal had a much more discernible form, that being a quadruped. That didn’t make it look any better. It was made out of red tumours and clown faces. It had a tail like protrusion coming from its back, ending with another clown head that had a large stinger extending from the mouth, like a scorpion. It was exactly the same as the ordeal from the Crimson Noon. It made an inhumane gurgling noise, before hobbling around again, keen to continue its killing spree.

“Whatever, just hurry up and suppress the thing,” she ordered her friend. Quentin nodded and ran to attack the ordeal. It thrashed around, using its stinger to pierce agents around it. One agent wearing a blue-furred coat looked very familiar. Daniel turned his head when he noticed Quentin.

“Hey, Quentin! What’s up with the bandages?” Daniel asked, ignoring the battle he was supposed to be focusing on. Quentin smiled. It seemed that Daniel was somewhat back to normal. He was bleeding and looked like he was on his last legs, but that was par for the course for Lobotomy Corporation.

“I’ll expla-“ he stopped himself when he saw the ordeal dangerously close to his friend. It began to draw its tail back. “GET DOWN!” Quentin shouted, running towards Daniel. Time felt slowed down to Quentin. Daniel turned around, seeing the ordeal about to attack him. The stinger lurched forwards, and so did Quentin. He collided with Daniel, pushing him to the floor. The crimson ordeal completely missed Daniel and ended up plunging the stinger into the side of Quentin’s torso. His suit took some of the damage, but there was still a nasty gash from where the monster struck. He yelled in pain.

He quickly drew his sword and cleaved through the tail, leaving no marks but still enough for it to go limp and stop moving. He staggered towards the clown continuing its attacks on nearby employees. He drew his sword back and began rapidly stabbing into the clown’s faces. It gurgled in pain. It attempted to run away, but its tumorous feet made it hard for it to walk, let alone escape, so it was quickly traced by the agents who continued beating it down. It screamed in pain until finally dropping to the floor, no longer able to take the damage it was taking.

Quentin sheathed his sword. Was it over? No. He’d dealt with a Crimson Noon before and what they did when they died. Just as he expected, the ordeal’s skin began lumping before bursting, with several small clowns from the Crimson Dawn ripping through its previous form’s flesh. They’d be a nuisance, sure, but they were also weak. They began running towards whatever containment they sensed to cause more mischief. They didn’t get very far, since the employees nearby were already ready for them and began to dispose of them in whatever way they could, with the more serious agents simply using their weapons on hand to dispose of the jesters and the agents who were more playful attempting to have fun with it, such as throwing around the clowns.

Quentin wanted to join them, but he had more pressing matters at hand. He turned around and began limping to his friends. His wounds burned, but he didn’t care too much for that. Daniel and Lilith were sitting nearby and were still recovering from their battle wounds. He sat down near them.

“Are you guys alright?” he asked them. Lilith turned to look at him whilst Daniel looked like he was spaced out.

“I have several lacerations and some of my bones are cracked after being crushed by the ordeal rolling around. Overall, quite well,” Lilith answered. She ruffled around her pockets and pulled out a vial of green liquid. “Enkephalin?”

“Isn’t that addictive? And isn’t that more suited for mental wounds?” he asked with concern.

“This is company provided, so they won’t make it addictive. They’re also pumping this stuff through the air to make sure we don’t go insane, so it can’t be too bad. It’s the enkephalin they sell on the streets that’s addictive.” Quentin still refused, so she popped open the cap and drank the liquid. Immediately her body posture became much more relaxed as she became a lot less focused. Quentin sighed faced Daniel, who was still focused on something else that he couldn’t see.

“What about you, Dan? Everything alright with you?” he asked.

“I’m sorry,” he replied quietly.

“Huh?” Daniel now faced his friend.

“I was being a bit of a dick earlier. I’ve calmed down now, but that doesn’t erase what I’ve done. I hope you can forgive me”

“Oh, no, don’t worry about that. The facility gets to everyone. I don’t entirely blame you for how you reacted,” Quentin told Daniel. “Besides, I doubt I’d react any better,” he joked.

“Yeah, it’s just that I’m still not used to the abnormalities. I thought I would by now but…” Daniel trailed off.

“Of course not, these things are quite literally monsters to us. You don’t have to like them, but if you hate them with that much passion, it might be even more destructive than the abnormalities,” Lilith reasoned, finally regaining her focus on the conversation going on.

“That’s… probably right,” Daniel admitted.

“Hey, what about Khanna? You were on her floor, right Lily?” Quentin questioned.

“Yeah, unlike Daniel, she does talk, but she’s a lit fuse. Anything sets her off right now, so it might be a while before we can talk to her.

“Doesn’t that make you worried? She’s your sister.”

“That’s why I didn’t want to get close to her again. I’m going to regret getting close to her, we’re all run the risk of dying here,” she explained. Everyone sat there in silence, unsure on how to progress the conversation. Quentin spoke up.

“Well, you became friends with me, and I don’t think either of us regrets that.” She shrugged.

“You make a decent point, Quentin.”

“Oh hey, you still need to explain the bandages!” Daniel reminded Quentin.

“Oh yeah, I was wondering about that,” Lilith added. Quentin scratched the back of his neck.

“Alright, but it’s a bit of weird story.”

One day we will know, and tomorrow we will march hand in hand.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was the final part I wrote before actually posting this here, which is why they all came at once. I'll poster chapters in chunks, so there'll be some time before I update, plus, I have school I have to do. Hopefully, you enjoyed reading this and continue to enjoy it later. Thank you.

**Author's Note:**

> There are some differences to this version of the facility to the canon one. Mainly, the facility can hold every Abnormality in the game at once, the abnormalities with missing E.G.O gear (mainly a certain ALEPH one) has a full set because I like sets, and agents's titles actually affect them (see the agent title overhaul mod for more, it's a bit outdated though, so if you want a more up to date version, tell me)  
> It'd be nice if you left kudos if you liked it and comments, but you don't have to.


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